Religion: Canadian Catholic Schools Now Viewed As Too Liberal – By Some

After facing efforts by Governor Rick Perry (R-TX), the American Family Association (AFA), and other religious right groups, the U.S. LGBT community is bracing for the next wave of heightened attacks running up to the current election. With that being said, it is interesting to see what is happening north of the border in Canada.

This week, the Canadian Egyptian Congress issued a call urging parents to reject the direction of a Coptic Orthodox priest. The Catholic school system in Canada is facing a pull towards inclusion of homosexuality and religious difference. The priest called on Canadian parents to pull almost 4,000 children out of the Catholic school system if it moved towards a more open, progressive and inclusive way of being.

The Equity and Inclusive Education policy is to be voted on at the end of this month, and is structured in a way that would help to create a softer and more open-minded policy on some strictures of Catholic doctrine so that they meet more closely with provincial standards, from whom they receive money.

“The kids have friends, they have a place to go, and they would lose that,” Nazeer Bishay, President of the Canadian Egyptian Congress, said Sunday. “And besides, we don’t have enough schools for all of them. So we will lobby, we will pressure the board, we will keep up the fight. But we do not recommend withdrawal.”

Mr. Bishay is a prominent member in his social and religious community. When he went forward and proclaimed publicly that Father Jeremiah Attaalla spoke out of turn when he suggested that the board’s proposed equity policy would result in Coptic Orthodox students being pulled from class in September, the Egyptian Congress president sent out an email to hundreds of families Sunday, urging them to maintain their children’s enrolment in the Catholic system.

Attaalla’s foundation is from an article in the policy where the Catholic School Board will commit to providing “a learning and working environment in which all individuals are treated with respect and dignity regardless of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital status, family status or disability.”

The Coptic Orthodox community has often sent their children to Catholic schools. While they are not of the Catholic faith they do hold to the same liturgies. They however believe that the Pope is human, not a divine person.

Prominent members of his congregation have suggested that Father Attaalla’s reaction to potential anti-homophobia policies within the school system were foolhardy and overblown.

“I have no concern about it at all,” said one father. “You have to be realistic now — it’s a fact of life. I’d just be concerned about teaching these things at an age when they’re able to understand it.”

Father Attaalla has gone as far as state that he would start his own school. It would be the first private Coptic Orthodox School in Canada that would hold to such strict homophobic teachings.

Were it possible to remove 4,000 children, as Attaalla has threatened, it would be a total loss of almost $40 million dollars per year to the Catholic School system. With a budget of almost $1 billion and more than 90,000 students, it would definitely be able to survive with the removal of the students however it would be one of the worst precedents in Canadian history.

Homosexuality being taught and the creation of gay-straight alliances are issues most often brought up by parents.

“Our policies are always fluid so they’re always open for change, modification and clarification,” said one school board trustee, adding that the proposed equity policy is “to ensure that all students are treated fairly.”

While Attaalla appeared focused on the potential softening of the Catholic stance that homosexuality is against God’s will, Bishay suggested a more pressing issue in the Catholic system.

With the Toronto District School Board recently approving formal Friday prayer services for Muslim students in a public school, the fear among the Coptic Orthodox community is that the Catholic system’s proposed Equity policy will introduce the same in Catholic schools.

“If you walk through the doors of a Catholic school, respect their rules. If you don’t like the religion, don’t go,” Bishay said. He noted that an array of non-Catholics — Jewish, Sikh, Hindu and many others — were now represented in the Catholic system, none of them demanding leave from class to observe their faith.

In the past 20 years, requirements for admission to Catholic schools in Toronto have changed. Once, students had to be Catholic to be admitted. Now, admission is open to all religions, in accordance with the province’s anti-discrimination policies.

Let’s hope that we can actually see the continuation of an openness within the Catholic school system leading to a more inclusive religion as a whole!

 

Growing up in Northern Ontario as a Jehovah’s Witness, Michael Talon experienced firsthand the struggle for equality. Now living in the U.S. with his partner, they work with advocates for federal equality, including immigration. Working side by side, Michael and his partner Brad, head of Luna Media Group, help to deliver messages for equality to the nation.