Posted by
Tom L. on Tuesday, March 09, 2010 5:19:00 PM
The Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, decided not to re-enroll a child in a Catholic school in Boulder next year because the child’s parents are lesbians.
“Parents living in open discord with Catholic teaching in areas of faith and morals unfortunately choose by their actions to disqualify their children from enrollment,” it said in a statement posted on its Web site. “To allow children in these circumstances to continue in our school would be a cause of confusion for the student in that what they are being taught in school conflicts with what they experience in the home.”
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput, comments on the matter included the following: “But what the Church does teach is that sexual intimacy by anyone outside marriage is wrong; that marriage is a sacramental covenant; and that marriage can only occur between a man and a woman.”
Would the Archdiocese not enroll (or re-enroll) a child if the parents got divorced and remarried without a Church annulment?
Archbishop Chaput also said, “Our schools are meant to be “partners in faith” with parents. If parents don’t respect the beliefs of the Church, or live in a manner that openly rejects those beliefs, then partnering with those parents becomes very difficult, if not impossible. It also places unfair stress on the children, who find themselves caught in the middle, and on their teachers, who have an obligation to teach the authentic faith of the Church.”
There are about 10,500 students in Denver’s Archdiocesan schools. Approximately 7% or over 700 are non-Catholic. Are their parents “partners in faith”? Does the teaching of the Roman Catholic faith cause those non-Catholic students confusion?