From name withheld.

I have been reading Father Kennedy's book The Catholic School in an Age of Dissent. It has been a real eye-opener. Practising traditional Catholic teachers are frequently stymied.

A student in my Catholic high school asked me about my views on homosexuality. I explained that it is not wrong to be homosexual but that homosexual activity is wrong, and I gave him an article on the subject. Soon after, a very angry member of the chaplaincy team who had counselled the student told me that it was wrong of me to give the student the full truth at this stage of his journey. I disagreed with him because people have a right to the truth and we have a duty not to hide it.

Shortly after, this chaplaincy member showed a video featuring an openly gay celebrity who was disenchanted with the Church and read Scripture passages on homosexuality (no mention of Sodom and Gomorrah). The phrase "intrinsic disorder" was misinterpreted. In comparison, artificial contraception was deemed a real evil. Some teachers present said, "This is crap. Just take what you want and leave out the rest" and "We need to get together and form committees to change Church laws." Only two teachers gave even slight evidence of being on the Church's side.

Later that day this chaplaincy member told me that I was rigid and judgmental. When I said he was very liberal, he replied, "Yes I am." A week later one teacher had the courage to give a letter to each staff member saying that if we were teaching chastity, as we are given a mandate to do, we wouldn't even need to discuss homosexuality.

While my school enthusiastically and publicly promotes social justice and care of the environment, nothing is said about the Real Presence, adoration, purgatory, hell, or vocations. The school doesn't have statues, sacred pictures, a tabernacle, or a holy water font. Scant attention is given to the Blessed Virgin, feast days, confession, the saints, and pro-life matters.

I have had to remove a picture of Mary, Patron of the Unborn, and when I was asked to give a talk on two concentration camps I have visited, it was cancelled when they insisted that I was making too much reference to today's abortion holocaust at the end of the talk.

Toronto, ON