Toronto cardinal rebukes Catholic school board members for barring Catechism reading

 

Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto has rebuked members of the local Catholic school board for refusing to allow a passage of the Catechism of the Catholic Church pertaining to ministry to people with same-sex attraction to be read during a recent meeting.

“That a Catholic should be criticized, and effectively be prevented by Catholic Trustees from reading from the Catholic Catechism at a meeting of a Catholic School Board is reprehensible,” Collins wrote in a Nov. 17 letter to board chair Joseph Martino.

“The Catholic faith must guide all who are engaged in Catholic education— including students, teachers, administrators, and trustees— or that education ceases to be Catholic.”

Jose Luis Dizon, a parishioner at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Scarborough, had called into the board meeting to express support for the statements of several board members, noting that the board members in question had been speaking in support of Church teaching regarding people with same-sex attraction. 

Dizon began to quote paragraph 2357 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which describes homosexual acts as “intrinsically disordered." The next paragraph in the Catechism goes on to state that people experiencing same-sex attraction “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.”

Trustee Norm Di Pasquale interrupted Dizon as he was quoting the passage, stating that Dizon’s comments were “treading in dangerous waters” and “putting down a marginalized and vulnerable community.”

Martino agreed, adding that “I must warn the delegate that some of the language, I feel, is not proper.”

The special session of the school board was called to determine whether to censure Michael Del Grande, a trustee who last year objected to the board’s decision to add the terms gender identity, gender expression, family status, and marital status to its code of conduct as protected categories.  (more...)

Toronto cardinal rebukes Catholic school board members for barring Catechism reading

So marginalized and vulnerable.