An 8-year old Catholic boy became the latest casualty in his church's war against same-sex marriage when the third-grader was kicked out of his Massachusetts elementary school after administrators learned his parents are gay.
Administrators of St. Paul Elementary, a private Roman Diocese Catholic school in Hingham, Massachusetts, withdrew the student's admission this week after they learned the boy's parents are lesbians.
"We weren’t hiding," stated one of the mothers of the boy, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her son from further harm, according the Massachusetts LGBT publication, Bay Windows. She confirmed both parents listed their names on their son’s admission forms. "I’m accustomed to discrimination, I suppose, at my age and my experience as a gay woman, but I didn’t expect it against my child."
It is not the Church leadership's first act opposing marriage equality that involved children as collateral damage. According to the LGBT-equal rights organization, Human Rights Campaign, two pre-schoolers were expelled from another Catholic elementary school in Boulder, Colorado in March.
According to the Associated Press, in the Colorado case the Denver Archdiocese posted a statement in support of the Sacred Heart of Jesus school’s decision, prompting LGBT advocacy groups to take out a full-page ads in local newspapers in protest.
The lesbian parents in Colorado defended their faith, differentiating the more recent conservative actions of Church leadership from the core beliefs of the Catholic faith, including sanctity of human life, compassion towards others, forgiveness and redemption.
In Washington, D.C., the Catholic Archdiocese made the decision to shut down the church's orphanage in protest over the city's Marriage Equality ordinance adopted early this year. The closure affected hundreds of adolescent, mostly minority, children.
Similar discrimination against children of gay parents is routine within the Boy Scouts of America organization.
On May 12, the Archdiocese of Boston, however, appeared to distance itself from the school's action with a public statement that school administrators were not following archdiocesan policy or any specific directive in expelling the boy.
The boy's mothers confirmed their son already had been christened - a ritualized acceptance and indoctrination - into what Catholics often call, the 'Mother' church, or Catholic faith.
Terrence Donilon, a spokesman for the Archdiocese, told the Associated Press that the archdiocese is now in "consultation with the pastor and principal to gather more information."
"Has the Church hierarchy apologized," asked Harry Knox, Director of HRC's Religion and Faith outreach program. "No. Have they come out and said it was wrong to target the children of LGBT families? No. Have they said that they won't discriminate against LGBT families in the future? Not one bit," stated Knox.
"We understand that our constitution protects the right of religious institutions to make decisions that may be inconsistent with state nondiscrimination laws," said Knox, "but that doesn't make it right. The Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, should apply to us all."
Massachusetts was the first state to afford legal marriage to same-sex couples and the state has had to endure multiple challenges to the law from fundamentalist religious organizations, though the primary source of the legal, political and social challenges have been from the Catholic and Mormon faiths.
Catholics comprise 44 percent of the Massachusetts population, though the state's generally liberal politics often seem at odds with the Catholic Church's increasingly conservative social and political positions.
CNN reported Friday that progressive Catholic groups are outraged. "The idea that a child might be punished because he does not live with his two biologic parents is antithetical to notions of Christian charity and Catholic social justice," said Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats, in a statement Friday.
Laws affording protections to gay and lesbian Americans often provide immunity to religious organizations. In fact, many of the laws enacted to protect homosexuals from discrimination were passed only after compromise "religious right to discriminate" clauses were added to the law, effectively codifying the right of religious organizations to openly discriminate against homosexuals and marriage equality, an exception often unique to LGBT equality or anti-discrimination law.
During a conference call with parish priest Rev. James Rafferty and principal Cynthia Duggan, the third-grader’s parents learned that he would be denied admission because their relationship is "in discord" with church teachings.
Neither Rafferty nor Duggan provided any information on whether children of other parents living 'in discord' with church teachings have been expelled, or if they have chosen only to expel children of same-sex parents. Parents 'in discord' with church teachings would include divorced, unmarried relationships, alcohol or substance abusers, or those parents who use contraception or otherwise engage in sexual relationships for any reason other than procreation, whether married or unmarried, although unmarried parents engaging in such activity without the use of contraception would still be 'in discord' with church teachings.
Joe Frescatore, 47, an educator in one of California's public school systems who also claims identity as Catholic and a legally married California gay man, is disappointed to hear of "another" misguided effort by Church leaders regarding children. "I don't necessarily love the church anymore, but I still love what i get from the church," he told California Progress Report. Frescatore says he still attends mass every Sunday morning at a parish near his suburban San Diego home.
"I was raised in the Catholic Church, it's what I know," said Frescatore. "I don't agree with a lot of the decisions made by the bishops, but the Church, at one time at least, did a lot of good for the poor in this country and that is the part of the church I still love."
"What a lot of people don't realize with this recent anti-gay direction of Church leaders," Frescatore told CPR, "is that the Catholic Church once embraced gay and lesbian Catholics."
Frescatore confirmed that the gay and lesbian organization, DignityUSA, was started "in the Church [in Los Angeles]," in 1969. The group was later expelled from the Church under the direction of Pope John Paul II in 1985. Frescatore says that while he goes to mass every Sunday, he does not feel so welcome in the church that he would socialize in the parish. "It's why I go to the 7 a.m. mass," he said.
It was just last month that the decades-long sexual abuse scandal plaguing the Church appeared to indict the Church's current leader, Pope Benedict XVi. At the core of the Catholic faith is the belief in forgiveness and redemption, which many religious scholars believe helped direct, some believe misdirect, church policy toward pedophile priests.
The Roman Catholic Church of the United States has 68 million baptized members, representing 22 percent of the U.S. population.
The U.S. branch of the worldwide Catholic church is centrally controlled through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, located in Washington, D.C., while the Church's many parishes are overseen regionally by 195 Dioceses, none of which were claiming responsibility for the boy's expulsion last week.
(This article first appeared at California Progress Report )
Comments
This is too bad. The Catholic corporation has a lot too offer this child, but it would rather use the child as a pawn to treat his parents like shi*.
It seems that anti-gay christianity has lost it's moral license. My three year old niece has a better understanding of human sexuality than these homophobic, sexist, religious, "adults".
And they'll know we are Christians by our love.
the sad thing about this is they count how many people are "baptized" in the faith, but how many are actually practicing catholics? i am sure it is less than the 22% of americans that they claim are catholic. i mean come on, even the gop is relaxing their views on gays and lesbians, it is really time for the church to come into the 21st century and quit expecting everyone to live like saints.
I don't get why these people want to pay to have their kid in a school that teaches they are immoral, seems counter productive to raising a child with respect for self and parents.
i dont like the use of expel in this article. the school rescinded the admission after they discovered the parents were lesbians. the child never attended the school.
they stopped the child from attending after the child was enrolled, whether he actually started or not, he was enrolled then they refused to allow him to attend. churches need to lose their tax-exempt status if they insist on maintaining their discriminate and prejudicial, bigoted agendas.
So, using the same logic that parents who are "immoral" and going against church doctrine will not be allowed to enroll their children. (or be expelled as was seen in a case last year after a student had attended for a year without incident but expelled after parents were found to be lesbians) In this logic, shouldn't the church also be as adamant about divorced parents? parents who have had an affair? single parents? But gays are just the group "du jour" for discrimination.
This "morality" message brought to you by the Roman Church of Pedophilia !!!
Whether you agree or not, the U.S. Constitution protects the right of organizations to associate (and have as members) who they want and to expect their members to accept a moral code of the organization's choosing. It's legal and that's that. You don't have to like it. The bottom line is that there are lots of private schools that would be willing to accept the student.
Actually, I find as much fault with the parents here for putting their child in a situation where they would almost certainly have this experience. Shame on them as well.
Jane Velez-Mitchell Rocks!! This lesbian tv host was just voted "person of the year" by the gay and lesbian pride festival. Watch her show to support this gay woman on TV!!! Her Show "Issues" is on everyday on the CNN headline news Channel
Tax the church! They are outwardly discriminating!
Tax the child rapists now!!!
Three cheers for Braying and Bill; I'm in complete agreement with your thinking and also appreciate your wit. Thank you both.
Religion has been the heavy boot on the neck of civilization for thousands of years. It's time to vanquish the oppressors of the human spirit and to liberate its potential for reason, justice, creative cooperation, peace, happiness, love and compassion. Time to end tolerance for the intolerant. Rational beings must speak against this enduring tyranny. The emperor is NAKED!
You are quite right, the will know we are Christians by our love. But loving someone isn't telling them what they want to hear, that is indulgence. The Church has a job to promote the truth and the lives of these women is at odds with those truths. They claim to be Catholic but really have no thorough knowledge of doctrine, citing popular parts of scripture and ripping them out of context and wrongly applying it to themselves. They are using thier child to thier own political advantage. I also believe people commenting here have the wrong view of homophobia. The Church is not scared of gays, infact it acknowledges that some people will have these feelings. What is does condemn is acting upon those feelings. That is not homophobia.
and you think that the church doesn't put their own spin on everything in the bible? they do not have the only hold on morality. they are indeed homophobes and they do hate gays and lesbians, just listen to one of them get worked up about gay issues, to them we are animals that should be caged and have no rights or priveleges. take away their tax exmempt staus and see how quick they back down. the church is about power, its own.
Right on the money Cephas! Once again, shame on the parents. They are either too inept to see what was coming or they intentionally used their child, placing him in harm's way, to promote their own political agenda.
"From Doubting Thomas:This "morality" message brought to you by the Roman Church of Pedophilia !!!"
Doubting Thomas' comment says it all. This church full of nasty, foul, filthy men, who prefer sex with children, are themselves against same-sex partners. Their removing the child from their school is a blessing. One less child for them to have access to.
Religion has been the heavy boot on the neck of civilization for thousands of years. It's time to vanquish the oppressors of the human spirit and to liberate its potential for reason, justice, creative cooperation, peace, happiness, love and compassion. Time to end tolerance for the intolerant. Rational beings must speak against this enduring tyranny. The emperor is NAKED!
Cephas,
I think that you fail to understand the meaning of homophobia. No one is scared of that one little gay man. It's far bigger than that. It is the very idea that this innocent gay man has the "influence" to make everybody "gay" around him. That is homophobia and in the eyes of the church, it could very well change the whole idea of priesthood. Maybe they'll have a female pope, LOL.
The church is hurting the child by making his parents appear like outcast. If that has nothing to do with mental health then i don't know what does.
Joe,
How do you place a child in harms way by sending him to a catholic school?
I'm catholic myself and I honestly fail to understand how some of you think.
These days, it is more of an embarassment to be a Catholic. On the one hand, many of our church leaders are either molesting children, or protecting their bretheren who are molesting young children. On the other hand, our church leaders are discriminating against and actively finding ways to support discrimination and as a result, hatred towards gays. All the while many (gay & strait) enuch-like priests quietly say and do nothing. When will priests speak out about both of these atrocities?
Thanks for the question, apparently I didn't express myself well enough.
I think the parents of the child committed harm to their own child because they KNEW IN ADVANCE that their relationship might cause this reaction from the school and they still chose to put their child in a position where it would be "rejected". They must have suspected it in advance and USED their own child to grab some headlines. I never meant that the school would cause harm to the child.
Sorry that last comment was directed TO Janey from me. I typed her name in too soon apparently. :O)
Religion has been the heavy boot on the neck of civilization for thousands of years. It's time to vanquish the oppressors of the human spirit and to liberate its potential for reason, justice, creative cooperation, peace, happiness, love and compassion. Time to end tolerance for the intolerant. Rational beings must speak against this enduring tyranny. The emperor is NAKED!
Has the same school expelled children of divorced parents, of separated parents, of alcoholic parents, of drug addicted parents, of single parents living with someone out of wedlock, of parents practicing safe sex with contraception, or any one of the hundred other reasons most catholics live "in discord" with church teachings.
If this school has consistently applied their "in discord" punishment on the children of "fallen" Catholics, then yes, I am disgusted, but see no hypocrisy. However, I suspect that this expulsion based on "Church teachings" is entirely politically motivated and shame on the Church for contradicting the compassionate teachings of Jesus Christ with their own self-serving, politically motivated "teachings."
Jesus taught us not to judge others, or to be judgmental of others, that religion and faith was between ourselves and our God. Here, you have a Church christen the boy with both parents present, only to kick him out of the church's school 8 years la
"They are using their child for their own political advantage?" How can you say that? They only sought a Catholic education for their son, quietly. It is the school administrator, and I suspect the diocese, who are using this child. The church was given the chance to teach this child the compassion of Jesus Christ. Did they? No. They taught him the opposite, and turned him away at the doors. This is not Christianity, this is shameful political strategy, and the church ought not to be advocating a tax free existence or 'school vouchers' while also expecting to hold the right to discriminate, not against the so-called sinner, but against the child of the so-called sinner. Ever hear the saying, 'the sins of the father are not the sins of the son?' Well, apparently the Church hasn't. It's ridiculous to argue further... anyone who can't see past their own personal politics to support the church's abuse of this child, well there's just no humanity their to reason with...
Where in scripture can the diocese find a defense for its actions? Where in scripture does it say it is right to punish the child, in this case a very young child, for the sins of the parent?
I contend that there is no such defense for this action and therefore the Church, not the child, should be punished.
End the free ride of religious organizations. End the tax-free exemption of churches! Let them pay for their privilege of discrimination.
I think that the parents are stupid for putting him in a catholic school but the teachers should of known straight away
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