“Respect for all.” As long as you’re straight, that is.
An anti-same-sex marriage booklet has been sent home with school-children attending Catholic institutions around the country. Because, of course it has.
The ‘Pastoral Letter’ from the Catholic Bishops of Australia warns students that “same-sex friendships” are very different from “real marriages” and yet maintains that the church is staunchly against any form of discrimination. Funny that.
“We deplore injustices perpetrated upon people because of religion, race, sex, age etc.” it reads, and yet refuses to recognise the legitimacy of homosexual couples or support same-sex union.
“Deep seated homosexual tendencies” and those who support marriage equality are ignoring the “very soul of marriage”, apparently.
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Top Comments
I am atheist and was sent to a Catholic school. I found that it was more open to us finding our own true beliefs than the public primary school that I was in before.
I chose to do Study of Religion rather than Religious Studies. This meant that the Head of Religion at my school was my teacher, and he taught us to critically read the bible as a historical piece of literature only (as in, not a non-fiction text). We were taught about the symbolism used by each "author" and how that served their purpose and helped them get across what they wanted. We were taught about different theories of "god" or gods and why people need to either have or create a spirituality. I wrote a paper about the "god of the gaps" theory where a deity is required by people to explain things that we don't understand and that as science closes those gaps religion will be unnecessary. I got an A.
My school was very open to the discuss of homosexuality and I personally did not ever see discrimination based on sexuality. The girls at my school were also not mean to the guys from our brother school who were (are) gay. Of course, it may have been there. I'm straight, so would of course not have experienced it first hand anyway.
We were taught evolution. Only those who chose Religious Studies as a subject ever had to even think about creation theory.
We would never have had a leaflet like this in our newsletter. I want to send our children to Catholic schools because of the positive environment I found that it was. However, obviously I will need to do serious research beforehand to make sure that this shit isn't happening in my kid's schools.
I was so lucky that my Catholic school was how it was. They aren't all evil.
Funnily enough, my son ended up atheist too. He is also gay. He attended Catholic primary and secondary schools. I do not regret my decision to send him to Catholic schools. His education was very similar to what you describe. I actually think some of the commentary here is confusing a Catholic education with maybe a fundamentalist Christian school education.
Catholic institutions are entitled to stand firm on their beliefs. It is a church with a strong, hierarchical command structure, and some directives and initiatives come from the Bishops or higher. They stand their ground on many issues, including this one. It has always been thus. It is good - comforting, to many - that there is at least one institution that doesn't flap around like a sheet on the ever-shifting social wind.
I would add that opposition to homosexual marriage is not homophobia. A phobia is an irrational fear. No-one opposed to homosexual marriage is afraid of it, or of homosexuals in general. It is just a case of being opposed to the concept on religious, moral or conventional grounds.