Bishops wade into Bill 10 debate
Mandating gay-straight alliances ‘problematic,’ says Calgary cleric
KRISTOPHER WELLS
CALGARY — Calgary’s Roman Catholic Bishop Fred Henry emerged on the weekend as one of the few voices applauding the Prentice government bill on gay-straight alliances, but not all his flock shares his belief.
The bishop penned a letter that was distributed to congregants Sunday regarding the bill, which could have forced GSA meetings off school property if local school boards objected to their presence.
In the face of mounting resistance to Bill 10, which had already been amended once, Prentice put the legislation on hold Dec. 4.
In his letter, Henry writes that Bill 10 was a “win-win for everyone” because it enshrined parental rights, recognized the autonomy of local school boards and student rights.
“The mandating of gaystraight alliances (GSAs) is problematic for a number of reasons,” states the letter.
“It infringes parental authority over their children, the freedom to instruct one’s children in a manner consistent with their faith, and citizens’ rights to manifest their religious beliefs by worship practice in the absence of coercion or constraint by government.”
Although the bishop’s letter opposed “mandating” the gay student support groups in schools, there was no such plan. The Prentice government’s Bill 10 was designed in part to thwart a Liberal private member’s bill that would have removed a school’s ability to ban GSAs, if students bid to create one.
While GSAs operate in many Calgary and Edmonton public schools in an effort to prevent students from being abused and bullied, there has been resistance to the groups from officials in faith-based and rural schools.
“It shows us where the real resistance to GSAs lies.”
Statistics in other jurisdictions show the rate of suicide among gay youth drops significantly when a school has one of the groups.
In a similar letter being shared in parishes of the Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton this weekend, Edmonton Archbishop Richard Smith writes that debate surrounding Bill 10 “might lead one to conclude from our principled objections to certain aspects of Bill 10 that we have little concern for students of same-sex attraction.”
“Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth,” the letter states.
Smith goes on to say that he has seen staff in Catholic schools committed to creating safe and caring environments for all students.
Homosexuality has been the subject of fraught debate in the Catholic Church, whose doctrine is that it is “intrinsically disordered.”
In August, Pope Francis created a stir when he answered a question about gay priests by responding, “If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?”
In October, an annual conference of bishops acknowledged homosexuals have “gifts and qualities” to offer and they deserve a “fraternal place” in the church. But the bishops’ statement also said homosexuality is “morally problematic.”
Leaving mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Calgary on Sunday, one parishioner said local Catholics should look to the pope for guidance on the GSA issue.
“I would be interested in Pope Francis’ opinion. That’s where I think we need to receive our ultimate direction,” said Wayne Brown.
In Edmonton, Catholic school trustee Patricia Grell recently wrote a blog post expressing support for GSAs.
To Kristopher Wells, director of programs and services at the Institute for Sexual Minority Studies at the University of Alberta, Grell’s statement reflects a schism between the Catholic leadership and laypeople.
“It shows us where the real resistance to GSAs lies: in institutionalized religion, not with teachers, trustees or even parishioners,” Wells said.