Everything goes, because “cosi’ fan tutte”. How ridiculous can it be that because one scatterbrained trustee - Ida Li Preti - accuses her colleagues of being homophobic, her Board of Education of “systemic homophobia”, one of Toronto’s English language dailies felt compelled to press into service a “contributing columnist” to criticize the Church, the Catholic School system and the 90,000 families who send their children to their schools.
Li Preti, whose listed credentials (although I haven’t been able to verify their existence) apparently include a direct line to what the Pope wants on issues of gender identity and such, doesn’t have confidence that the Cardinal or his delegate has sufficient knowledge to make a productive contribution to any discussion on denominational schools. And if the Cardinal has any “expertise” on religious ideology or morality, well, it may be anachronistic. The “contributing columnist” dutifully called for a debate about the usefulness of Catholic schools.
This much we do know: her sources of information are three gadfly LGBTQ2+ radical activists and some of their friends. They have too much time on their hands. Trustee Teresa Lubinski correctly demanded a retraction on behalf of all families and Church officials who execute their duties with the love and care demanded by their charges.
That may be difficult for the radical activists and proponents of gender ideology to comprehend or admit, but the rest of the world does not really care. To suggest that the Pope is now in favour of the LGBTQ2+ movement, therefore everyone else should climb on board, is a little self serving.
The Vatican has been trying to clarify two separate statements clipped together in a documentary for a different effect: to suggest the Pope might be favourable to same sex relationships. What the Pope did say is that everyone has a right to the happiness generated within families and that Governments might look to finding some legal protection for people in any civil union.
I apologize for any perceived dismissiveness I might exude on the topic because I was a Cabinet Minister in Paul Martin’s government fashioning Canada’s Same-sex Marriage legislation. That was fifteen years ago, in 2005.
Before that, both of us argued in caucus that any government “benefits” accruable to common- law couples - and extended to those in a civil union - be also applicable to [elderly] companions of the same gender, regardless of sexual relationships. The LGBTQ2+ activists said no!
The former Prime Minister and I are both Catholic; neither of us could be considered homophobic. Radical activists consider us “passe’”.
He swore into government at least three gay Ministers and two others who were in a “lavender marriage”. For my part, as a Minister, I gave gadfly radical Kyle Iannuzzi his first job on Parliament Hill. There were dozens like him in Cabinet offices. Some were better than others. Like my colleagues I hired staff from all sectors of the racial, ethnic, and religious spectrum. All anyone expected of any staff was that they do their job.
The job of a Catholic School Board is to deliver a curriculum in a Catholic context. If teachers and trustees do not like that, they are free to go elsewhere. The Cardinal said as much. He could have been more forceful.
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