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What wisdom is at work in not having children of a gay marriage in a Catholic school?
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By Father Bill Breslin, pastor at Sacred Heart of Jesus, Boulder
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If a child of gay parents comes to our school, and we teach that gay marriage is against the will of God, then the child will think that we are saying their parents are bad. We don't want to put any child in that tough position-nor do we want to put the parents, or the teachers, at odds with the teachings of the Catholic Church. Why would good parents want their children to learn something they don't believe in? It doesn't make sense. There are so many schools in Boulder that see the meaning of sexuality in an entirely different way than the Catholic Church does. Why not send their child there?
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The core issue for us Catholics on this question is our freedom and our obligation to teach about marriage and family life as our Faith teaches. If parents see the cultural interpretation of what tolerance has become as more important than the teachings of Jesus, then we become unfaithful to the Lord and we lose the meaning of the beatitude, “Blessed are you when they insult you for My sake, for the Kingdom of Heaven is yours.” Many of Jesus’ teachings were not popular. In fact, He was crucified for His teachings.
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Glossing over differences on essential matters, and pretending that crucial issues are irrelevant, is not tolerance. It is relativism, meaning that nothing is important anymore and everyone can have their own interpretation of what is goodness and truth. This kind of tolerance, which is a decidedly secularist invention, seeks to separate all moral discourse from public life. However, those who embrace this kind of tolerance do not, of course, acknowledge that they are imposing their own moral judgments upon society.
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The Catholic Church invests in parish schools so as to assist children in becoming disciples of Christ and to stand as a light shining in the darkness that has rejected Christianity and the truth of being human, including the meaning of human sexuality. - Fr. Breslin's Homily
Father Breslin is right on the mark. It seems to me that the that two lesbian guardians are trying to raise a point and making the poor boy the center piece of their argument. I would never have put my children through something like that.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Terry.
ReplyDeleteThis whole issue is really being obscured by a lot of emotional outbursts; a lot of Catholics don't understand Her teachings; what looks like discrimination on the part of the Archdiocese, the Archbishop, the Pastor is really trying to deal with the reality that living publically as a same-sex couple with children is not our understanding of God's Law.
That's a hard saying, I guess. And a lot of energy is being put into trying to derail the whole discussion.
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteOne of my tutees is a Muslim boy whose parents sent him to a Catholic school for the "contacts." (It's like one big fraternity; alumni ideally always help each other out.) When his mother hired me, she admitted that she wasn't happy that her son wanted to be Catholic.
I still remember the look on his face when I explained to him, while we were studying his Social Science textbook, that Muslims only believe in Jesus as a prophet. His next question was: "Will my mother and father go to hell?"
The other day, I was helping another tutee revise for his Religion exam. We had just got to Church teaching on divorce when I noticed he was just mumbling his answers. Then I remembered his parents were separated.
On a lighter note . . . when I was still teaching full-time and got to Circle III of Dante's Inferno, where the Gluttons go, I all but sweated bullets when I noticed that one of my most enthusiastic students, who happened to be overweight, kept her eyes cast down for the entire lesson. The lesson was certainly not about making her feel bad! Then again, given Dante's portrayal of the punishment of sin, maybe it was! =P
Which is to say that there will always be something challenging and uncomfortable about Catholic education, whoever you are. I just don't see why some parents have to set themselves up.
Amazing how the Truth is always, and without exception, crystal clear. And the world is starving for it.
ReplyDeleteTerry, thanks for "standing tall" on this whole thing;
ReplyDeletethey're "throwing nutty's"(Fr. Z!) all over the blogosphere (and I probably have a 'price on my head' for all the blabbing I have done in the past day...oh, well!...always did want to die a martyr!)
This just shows how much Catholics do not understand basic moral theology; the pastoral practice of the Church; the internal/external forum, yadayadayada...Oh, man, do we have a lot of work to do.
Anyway, keep on the "Mansions of Saint Teresa", know our prayers are with you, and thank you again.
Thanks Father - I just returned from adoration - what you say about many Catholics not understanding moral theology is correct. The situation is very troubling, but those responsible for denying this child of a Catholic education would be the adoptive lesbian parents. Even if the child were to continue in Catholic school, the parents would deny the education the school was attempting to teach as regards Catholic teaching on faith and morals. The lesbian couple and those like them are the ones hindering the children coming to Jesus, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
ReplyDeleteGod bless you and thanks for your prayers.
Terry: I just made this argument w/ a friend of mine. It is their sin, not the school,that thwarts admission, and thus, access to Catholic formation. As I told my friend, nothing so blinds as does sin.
ReplyDeletePadre: I think that, in part, we are where we are--i.e., so many lost souls, because there has been silence from our Shepards. This is why I think Fr. Breslin and Chaput are so brave. They a face a world now fully confirned in their sin. Priests who are faithful will become 'martyrs', in a sense, for love of Christ. If we are persecuted for loyalty to the Bishop of Rome, so be it. The test of a Cahtolic now is this: are we loyal to the Bishop of Rome???
Padre and the faithful here at Abbey Roads...It never hurts to remind ourselve:
ReplyDelete“Blessed are you when men reproach you, and persecute you, and, speaking falsely, say all manner of evil against you, for my sake. Rejoice and exult, because your reward is great in heaven; for so did they persecute the prophets who were before them” (Mt 5:11-12).
The very fact that these "parents" are willing to sacrifice this poor child's emotional and psychological well being for the sake of promoting the homosexualist agenda should give advocates pause to rethink the wisdom (or rather, lack of wisdom) in allowing homosexuals to adopt and raise children.
ReplyDeleteGod have mercy on this poor, fallen world. God have mercy on the innocent children.
+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteThe discussions in the Abbey-Roads comboxes have been reminding me of something that was in the news several years ago. A child with celiac disease couldn't receive Communion because of the gluten in the species, and his mother insisted that the priest consecrate a rice wafer for her son . . . which, of course, was impossible.
In that case, as well as in this one, it's not a priest who is denying a child something good, but the child's own parents.