“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.
According to the booklet, marriage should not be a purely emotional union. It is about ‘purpose,’ and that purpose is procreation.
“What allows for this special kind of union between a man and a woman in marriage,” they state, “is precisely their difference and complementarity.”
“Their physical, spiritual, psychological and sexual differences show they are meant for each other, their union makes them whole, and through their union ‘in one flesh’ they together beget children who are ‘flesh of their flesh’. They share the sameness of humanity but enjoy the difference of their masculinity and femininity, being husband and wife, paternity and maternity.”
The booklet dismisses same-sex couplings as “friendships” it also states that to treat them as equal to heterosexual partnerships is to do a “grave injustice” to the institution and values of marriage.
Catholic children — of primary school age — are being told that same-sex marriage advocates have things “the wrong way around”, and must be taught the “true” meaning of marriage:
“We all know and love people with same-sex attraction. They are our brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, friends and neighbours. They need love and support like anyone else. But pretending that their relationships are ‘marriages’ is not fair or just to them. As Christians we must be willing to present the truth about marriage, family and sexuality and to do so charitably and lovingly.”
The Catholic Church’s publication and distribution of such a document is likely reactionary to the growing support for marriage equality in Australia.
Just stop. ‘Stop telling me Christians don’t support gay marriage.‘
As The Guardian reports, National director of Australian Marriage Equality Rodney Croome said earlier this week: “preach[ing] to a captive audience of children says that they know they’ve lost the debate.
“The fact that the bishops have asked for this material to be distributed to students shows how completely out of touch they are with the strong support for marriage equality amongst young people and also the vulnerability of young gay people and the children of same-sex couples in their schools to the prejudice and discriminatory attitudes in the material.”
Poor mental health, depression and suicide are the fate of many young Australians who identify as LGBTQI — and with material like this being so widely circulated it is no wonder.
According to Beyond Blue, 61 per cent of young non-heterosexual people reported experiencing verbal abuse and 18 per cent have reported physical abuse.
Deplorable figures which will likely be exacerbated by the circulation of material such as this pamphlet in schools.
“A 15-year-old at a Catholic high school in Australia today wants to believe that they can find love, they can find an enduring relationship in their life,” says Croome. “There are many people in society that tell them that that won’t happen. The law tells them that won’t happen and now they have their own school telling them that shouldn’t happen.”
For more stories like this, be sure to check out these:
18 arguments against gay-marriage and why they are all bollocks.
We are one gigantic step closer to legalising gay-marriage.
People came #HomeToVote for gay-marriage in Ireland. It was beautiful.
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.