While LGBTQ activism is a runaway train in the secular corners of Canada, it continues to chip away at Catholic edifices. And in its sights, is the Halton Catholic District School Board which is part of the Greater Toronto Area. Halton Region also happens to have one of the highest growth rates in the nation.
Last Tuesday April 20th, the board convened to vote on a motion which would see the “rainbow flag” raised at all board-run schools during the month of June (which LGBTQ activists call “pride month”). What followed was a contentious three-hour session which delayed the vote. The Pride Flag motion had been scheduled for a May 4th board meeting, but the organization Parents As First Educators (PAFE) sent out an email blast to its supporters Saturday alleging the Board has “illegally MOVED UP its meeting on flying the Pride flag from May 4 to April 26.”
Pro-family individuals and groups have mounted opposition since the motion was first tabled at an April 6th board meeting which featured a presentation by Nicole Hotchkiss, a grade 12 student at St. Ignatius of Loyola High School. The first question directed at Hotchkiss following her presentation centred around a quote from Pope Francis who testified to the “life-giving relationship between man and woman which brings them into an intimate relationship with God.” Hotchkiss then responded with the wholly un-Catholic notion that she can choose what she believes and what she rejects from the Bible. Following another question which involved squaring the Catholic faith with the gay pride flag, Board Chair Patrick Murphy interrupted to state that only “clarification questions” should be directed at Hotchkiss, and that “deeper, philosophical questions really are not up for debate.” The comment is strikingly ignorant of the fact that the issue has everything to do with surface belief, and not deeper philosophy.
But then, we must admit that Catholicism is crumbling not only from without, but within its structures. And all in the name of “progress”.
In the April 20th board meeting, a Dr. Alexandra Power (who calls herself “family doc, mom of 3, wife, health care advocate“) went full-blown LGBTQ advocate with a four-minute long rant that started with “raising the flag pride flag is never going to be enough”, was sprinkled throughout with calls for “progressivism”, and concluded with a chilling answer to the question “will this (raising the rainbow flag) be enough?”: “No! Never! Not until every child, adult, person, amongst us feels safe being their own genuine selves. Not until, as a society, until we rid ourselves of judgement and hatred towards others. Progress is where we have to aim.”
Dr. Power snarls “love” and “acceptance” while calling for progress. But what she is actually championing is the sin of Modernism which, as Pope St. Pius X stated in the encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, embraces every heresy.
And what shall we make of a Catholic who simply wants to be their “genuine selves” while accepting Church teaching ‘in toto’? Is there any room in Dr. Power’s world for that? Well, I can certainly answer that question for you.
The issue in front of this Catholic school board isn’t deep philosophy, but simple truth. And it’s an issue that should be front and centre for members of the Church hierarchy. But the fact of the matter is, the poison of Modernism has infected even the men who are commissioned to protect the flock.
A document called “To Listen, To Reason and To Propose: The Rainbow Flag & Catholic Schools” was submitted on behalf of Father Cornelius O’Mahony, Episcopal Vicar for Education for the Catholic Partners of the Diocese of Hamilton. The document approves of the pride flag under the guise of bringing diverse people together to form something beautiful… much like a rainbow. On top of that, the Diocese also sent a letter to all priests in Halton Region to refrain from speaking about the issue.
In the Province of Ontario, Catholic schools receive public funding. It is a surreptitious way for those sympathetic to LGBTQ activism – both inside and outside the deanery – to pave the way for this kind of situation which completely contradicts Church teaching. Just last month the Toronto Star asked the question, “Is it time for Ontario to end Catholic school funding?“
It’s a good question. But better is, “what is a Catholic school, if it is no longer Catholic?”