Homosexuality and the Catholic high school.

The "Marc Hall" episode of May this year in which a "gay" Oshawa student, supported by a coalition of special interest groups, successfully challenged both his school and his school board for the privilege of bringing a same-sex partner to a school dance, has focused public attention on the presence of such individuals in the Catholic school system. Under normal circumstances, how are they, as students, treated?

Institute for Catholic Education

The education establishment in Ontario approaches Byzantine dimensions, with corresponding tactics, of which few members of the general public are aware. Most Catholic parents more or less monitor affairs at their local school board, but who has much information on the Toronto-based Institute for Catholic Education? This is nevertheless the think-tank which, under its current president Sister Joan Cronin, is responsible for the religion content of the Catholic school curriculum in the province. ICE is about to produce a new curriculum which supposedly will reinvigorate the faith in all our schools.

Sister Joan is a committee member of OCFLEN, another body whose name may be new to most people. OCFLEN is the Ontario Catholic Family Life Educators Network. Other executive members are Tom Reilly, secretary of the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops, and representatives from several school boards, notably John Podgorski, the communications officer from Ottawa-Carleton. It is from this area that OCFLEN's newsletters emanate.

September newsletter

The September 2001 newsletter was interesting, particularly for an article foreshadowing the Hall situation entitled "Homosexuality and the Catholic high school." It is replete with pleas for understanding and support for "gay" teenagers in their transition to adulthood. An emotional Rochester, NY, mother calls for education within her faith community to welcome such people as her "gay" son, because there are children like him in every parish.

An article excerpted from the Psychology Newsletter of the Toronto Catholic school board connects the adolescent years with suicide rates among homosexuals. According to the author, many of these young people attempting or succeeding in suicide were said to suffer from feelings of isolation and low self-esteem due to their inability to speak out on their confused feelings on sexuality. They did not receive any understanding from their families or schools. In fact, many of the latter, states the Newsletter, were rife with "homophobia" and thus not safe and welcoming learning environments guaranteeing inclusion for all students.

One contribution is by a grade 12 Ottawa student who "came out" as a lesbian in grade 9. While admitting that "I can honestly say that I have never experienced hatred or discrimination," she has obviously ingested the whole ideological tack and demands "an education free from fear" for not only "gays" and lesbians but also for bisexual and transgendered students! Marc Hall did not seem to have problems either. He had many friends of both sexes; his principal and the chairwoman of the school board treated him respectfully; he was merely displeased when they drew a line in the sand before him, a line based on Catholic Church teachings.

The newsletter tone, while charitable and compassionate to young students, makes no mention of the fact that adolescence is a time of turmoil in most lives; conflicted feelings in sexuality can often be resolved with the right advice. There seems to be an acceptance of the idea that the confused sexual orientation of that phase must inevitably persist into adulthood, and the identification of homosexuality as a "lifestyle choice" is pooh-poohed and blamed as a justification for discrimination.

The psychologists make a grudging reference to the fact that "chastity is expected of all unmarried Catholics." Thankfully, Archbishop Marcel Gervais of Ottawa has something more to say on this score when interviewed by Podgorski. While emphasising a pastoral compassion for the young people, the archbishop states that it "must be balanced with a clear challenge to chastity." He also sets out an explanation of the term "objectively disordered" (as used in the Catechism), and sensibly recommends homosexuality only be discussed at a grade 12 level. Though he seems to be accepting of the "homophobia concept" in the bishop-approved AIDS program, Gervais has a positive message on the promotion of chastity, a message we need to hear more often and louder. Parents, teachers, and interested parties should find out what is in this new curriculum and what topics are involved.

None of the above however, seems satisfactory. What is left out of these Catholic programs is the cultural environment of hard, aggressive propaganda and action by the homosexual activists of today, demanding recognition of their "rights" and their "lifestyle" as perfectly normal, as equal to "heterosexuality" (a word they coined), as deserving of full recognition in the courts and in the laws of Canada.

What is left out

Nothing is said in these programs about the evil of sodomy, its sinfulness, its horrendous effects on health, its destructive impact on society, its vulgarity, and the miserable lives of its practitioners consumed by their passion. People, above all Christians, have not only a right but a duty to oppose it, instead of going around apologizing for so-called "homophobia" (another word coined by homosexual activists). True hatred of homosexuals is practically non-existent. "Homophobia" is a slogan only, an utterly meaningless, but extremely effective, tool used to silence all opposition.

ICE is holding a meeting on Friday and Saturday, November 8-9, at the International Plaza Hotel, 655 Dixon Rd., Toronto, ON. For information call [phone]. Anyone who knows anything about the history of the "Come to the Father" series, later renamed "Born of the Spirit" on the insistence of feminists, will be uneasy about the continued unsatisfactory catechesis of Catholic children. [dagger]

RELATED ARTICLE: "Legal approval not acceptable" Lent 1994, Pope John Paul II 

Unfortunately, precisely in this Year of the Family, one notes initiatives, disseminated by a considerable part of the mass media, that seem to be essentially "antifamily." They are initiatives which give priority to what causes the break-up of the family, the defeat of the human person--man, woman, or child. Here what is really evil is called good: separation chosen for trivial reasons, marital infidelity not only tolerated but even extolled, divorce and free love sometimes presented as examples to be followed. Who needs this propaganda? Who needs it? What are its sources? "Every good tree," Jesus days, "bears good fruit, and a rotten tree bears bad fruit" (Mt. 7"17). Hence it is a question of a bad tree that humanity bears within itself, cultivating it with the help of vast financial outlays and the support of the powerful mass media.

Legal approval is not acceptable

Here one's thoughts turn to the recent, well-known resolution approved by the European Parliament. It does not merely defend people with homosexual tendencies by rejecting unjust discrimination in their regard. The church agrees with that--indeed, she supports and approves it. She does so because every human person is worthy of respect. What is not morally acceptable is the legal approval of homosexual activity. Being understanding towards the sinner who is unable to free himself from this tendency is not the same as lessening the requirement of the moral norm (cf. Veritatis splendor, no. 95). Christ forgave the woman caught in adultery and saved her from being stoned, but at the same time he said to her: "You may go, but, from now on, sin no more" (Jn 8:11)....

It is not recognized that the true human right is victory over oneself so as to live in conformity with a correct conscience. Without a basic awareness of the moral law, human life and human dignity are subject to decadence and ruin. Forgetting Christ's words, "The truth will set you free" (Jn 8:32), the attempt has been made to tell the inhabitants of this continent that moral evil deviation, a kind of slavery, is the way to liberation, thus distorting the true meaning of the family.

The relationship of two men or two women cannot constitute a true family; still less can one grant such a union the right to adopt children who lack a family. These children suffer great danger, grave harm, because in these "substitute families" they do not have a father and mother, but "two fathers" or "two mothers." And this is dangerous. Let us cease being people of little faith and seek to become people of prayer and penance! "If you do not repent, you will all perish" (Lk 13"3) Christ says. These words are not said in vain; they have been confirmed many times in history. We know neither the day nor the hour (Mt 25:13).