In his blog last Friday, Cardinal Sean O’Malley offered an opinion in relation to the case of David Parker, a Massachusetts father who sued the local school district because it wouldn’t notify him before teaching his son about homosexuality, as state law requires. He had sued in federal court but the judge dismissed the suit saying that teaching children about same-sex relationships is “reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy,” and that this means teaching “diversity,” in which he includes “differences in sexual orientation.”
The cardinal says that he had several comments on his previous blog post about the case and so now he has responded.
Massachusetts law states that parents must be notified in advance and have the option of removing their children from the classroom when their children from a classroom when “human sexual education or human sexuality issues” are presented. However, in this case, the judge ruled that the school’s discussion of same-sex marriage concerned diversity rather than human sexuality.
Obviously, the Church sees the parents as being the primary educators of their children and having a very special role that must be respected. The disturbing part of this affair is that it underscores how, by redefining marriage in Massachusetts, people’s religious rights are going to be challenged by the state. I think that people were very naïve saying that we can change the definition of marriage and it will not have any repercussions and will not affect anyone else’s marriage or society as a whole. This situation with the Parkers and the Wirthlins is just beginning to show how far-reaching and how ill-advised the course of action embraced by our Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts was. In Canada, where same-sex marriage was legalized in 2005, they are already seeing the many different ways that people’s religious rights are being trampled because of the redefinition of marriage. So I am pleased to see that these families are attempting to address the situation through the courts, and we certainly hope they will be successful in their endeavors.
The big lie we were told
Technorati Tags:bishops, Boston, cardinal, Catholic, homosexuality, O’Malley, same-sex marriage
After that, how long before our priests are ordered to perform marriages of divorced persons in spite of Church teaching?
I’m willing to bet that most of the Catholic parents and the pastors of the Catholic churches in Lexington have not seen the actual curriculum that is being piloted at the Estabrook Elementary School in Lexington. All they have to do is download Makling Room in the Circle which is the Massachusetts LGBT Early Childhood Education Initiative curriculum. Downloading the Massachusetts LGBT Early Childhood Education Initiative will allow you to download the Print Article which is “Show and Tell”, the Bay Windows 6/22/2006 article that tells all about how ,with the help of Emmy Howe and Wheelock college courses for teachers, the curriculum is being piloted at the Estabrook School.
If you download Making Room in the CirclelLook at the “Introduction”, the “Glossary”, the “Syllabus” and the “Bibliography” for Making Room in the Circle and you will see just how extensive the instructions in the ways of the GLBT agenda go. I sent a copy to Cardinal O’Malley with the hope that he will advise the pastors about practical ways that they can help Catholic parents whose children are being indoctrinated in this LGBT agenda which Fed. Judge Mark Wolf thinks is so necessary for their educational development! How degrading does he want our children to go?
Hopefully the archdiocesan leaders in religious education will work with Cardinal O’Malley and that this effort to undo the harm to the children won’t be just left to the Parkers and the Withlins to pursue by themselves! Wishing them well is fine but is certainly not enough!!
The MSM constantly regards the Church as somehow powerful. But any look at history shows that the power to be feared is the power of the state when it runs amuck as on Gay issues and abortion. It truly is something we Americans seem to have forgotten.
Donations to help the Parkers and Worthlins in their legal struggle can be made at http://www.davidparkerfund.org or mailed to David Parker Fund, P.O. Box 2, Bedford, MA 01730.
A slight detour, Dom, but on the topic of brave bishops did you blog about Bishop Tobin vs Patrick Lynch? I wish more people would notice that the many letters sent on behalf of his stance and the Truth he continues to stand for remain unprinted by a certain newspaper. It is one thing to be blessed by the insults of the world, but to have self-identified Roman Catholics call their bishop (in print) a bigot, irrelevant to questions of morality, hate-filled and UNChristian because of his defense of marriage as between one man and one woman is particularly hurtful. Especially when one knows of supportive Catholic voices that are not being heard.
I humbly request prayers for your Providence neighbor. I do pray for Boston. I am sick over the “mandatory tolerance” in schools. It’s like Pre-K brainwashing.