The hierarchy of the Catholic Church has never been very friendly toward LGBT folks, to put it very mildly. They have been extremely hostile with regard to our relationships and our marriages. Now, we have a group of
young (adult) Catholics in Philly attacking a gay couple on the street and causing serious injuries in the process. And, the Catholic Church is just totally SHOCKED by it.
From Brian Cahill Of The National Catholic Reporter:
Catholic high school students, who can spot dishonesty and hypocrisy a mile away, are reacting with disillusion and disgust at how the church is treating some teachers in Catholic schools.... Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr upheld the firing of an assistant principal who expressed support for civil gay marriage on his blog. The chancery spokesman stated that such actions "would undermine what students are being taught in the classroom." It would appear that Cincinnati Catholic high school students are not being taught Jesus' message of love and inclusiveness or Pope Francis' words, "Who am I to judge?"
The Cincinnati [Catholic school employee] contract prohibits teachers from "public support of the homosexual lifestyle." That contract language forced a Catholic teacher who is the mother of a gay son to choose between her son and her job. She chose her son.
Schnurr's spokesman described the resulting protests as "a tempest in a teapot." But the real tempest, the real storm may be over the horizon. The real question is how many thoughtful Catholic high school students will be turned off by a church that can treat people this harshly, and how many will walk away before they are 24.
The Pew Research Center's Religion and Public Life Project reports that four out of five Catholics who have left the church and haven't joined another church did so before the age of 24.
Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon fired a teacher at a Catholic high school from her job when the diocese read the obituary of her mother's death and discovered the teacher was a lesbian. How many thoughtful Catholic high school students will stick around in a church that is capable of that kind of behavior?
From SLOG (Dan Savage):
We should be just as concerned by thoughtless Catholic high-school students—the one in five—who aren't turned off by their church's bigotry (as reported by Cahill).
What about Catholic high-school students who don't react to these acts of antigay bigotry with "disillusion and disgust" but with delight and approval? What do they do when they grow up?
We may have seen an example in Philadelphia earlier this week.
And here's something we now know about the 15 men and women who attacked two gay men walking down the street last week:
PHILADELPHIA: Gay-Bashing Mob Were Former Classmates At Catholic High School.
From
JMG:
The school has released a statement denouncing the attack.
Earlier today, Archbishop Wood High School became aware that some of its former students were allegedly involved in the assault of two men in Center City last week. This afternoon, administrators communicated with the entire Archbishop Wood school community to make it emphatically clear that the school does not, under any circumstances, tolerate or condone the violent and hateful behavior displayed by those who took part in this senseless attack. Administration also stressed that Catholic schools are centers of learning where students are expected to treat each other in a Christ-like manner at all times and that everyone deserves to be treated with respect and dignity. The actions of those who took part in the attack are reprehensible and entirely unacceptable. They are not an accurate reflection of our Catholic values or of Archbishop Wood High School.
One of these alleged gay bashers isn't just a graduate of Archbishop Wood Catholic High School. He works there—or he did. It appears, according to JMG, that he has been fired.
Again, from SLOG:
The actions of those who took part in this attack on a gay couple aren't an "accurate reflection" of Catholic values?
Really?
Because American Catholic bishops attack gay couples all the time. They don't attack them physically, of course; bishops aren't beating up gay couples in the streets. But Catholic bishops do real violence and real harm to gay couples whenever and wherever they can: economic violence, social violence, spiritual violence
The Catholic Church has spent the last 30 years arguing that LGBT people who want full civil equality are attacking Catholics—that gay people, simply by existing, are doing violence to Catholics—and then they pretend to be shocked when Catholic young adults attack gay couples in the streets.
We shouldn't pretend along with them.
I agree!