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Axios: School stripped of Catholic identity for flying BLM, LGBTQ Pride flags

Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,109
A Catholic middle school in Worchester, MA has been banned from identifying as a Catholic school after refusing the Worchester bishop's request to take down an LGBTQ and BLM flag from the campus. The loss of Catholic status means, aside from being banned from holding religious services, the school is also cut off from the fundraising apparatus run by the church.

Bishop Robert McManus issued the decree on Thursday, saying the decision to fly the flags at the Nativity School in Worcester, Massachusetts, was "inconsistent with Catholic teaching." McManus said the Pride flag is inconsistent with Catholic teaching because it "represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle," while the BLM movement "contradicts Catholic social teaching on the importance and role of the nuclear family."
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The decree also pulled out an "all lives matter":
"This is also true of 'Black Lives Matter,'" McManus said. "The Catholic Church teaches that all life is sacred and the Church certainly stands unequivocally behind the phrase 'black lives matter' and strongly affirms that all lives matter."
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The Nativity School began flying the Pride and BLM flags in January 2021 after students called for the school to "express support for making our communities more just and inclusive," Nativity School president Thomas McKenney said in a statement. "These flags simply state that all are welcome at Nativity and this value of inclusion is rooted in Catholic teaching," McKenney added.
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www.axios.com

School banned from holding Catholic mass after flying BLM, LGBTQ Pride flags

Bishop Robert McManus issued the decree on Thursday, saying the decision to fly the flags at the Nativity School in Worcester, Mass. was "inconsistent with Catholic teaching."
www.axios.com www.axios.com

www.cnn.com

Massachusetts middle school can't be called Catholic after flying Gay Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, bishop says | CNN

A Massachusetts middle school can no longer be called Catholic after flying Gay Pride and Black Lives Matter flags at the school, the bishop of the Diocese of Worcester of the Catholic Church says.
www.cnn.com www.cnn.com

Since the decree a week ago, the school has received $100,000 in donations from around the country:

www.masslive.com

Worcester school stripped of Catholic identity after flying pride, BLM flags rakes in donations

McManus said flying the flags in front of a Catholic school sends a "mixed, confusing and scandalous message to the public."
www.masslive.com www.masslive.com
 
PlanetSmasher

PlanetSmasher

The Abominable Showman
Member
Oct 25, 2017
116,569
"The Catholic Church teaches that all life is sacred and the Church certainly stands unequivocally behind the phrase 'black lives matter' and strongly affirms that all lives matter."
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"we stand unequivocally behind this phrase but we'll punish you for using it"
 
Slayven

Slayven

Never read a comic in his life
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
93,548
The catholtic church shitting on black and brown bodies? History is a circle
 
Cort

Cort

Member
Nov 4, 2017
4,364
It's fascinating how hypocritical the American Catholic church is.

Like, for instance, the fact that a huge percentage of them are Trump supporters and support building a wall on the US-Mexican border, when Mexico is a country with one of the highest percentage of Catholics.
 
steejee

steejee

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,720
Follow-up article from the Globe:
www.bostonglobe.com

‘It’s just disrespectful’: Worcester activists question bishop’s decision to remove school’s Catholic status - The Boston Globe

Black and LGBTQ+ activists in Worcester said they were shocked and disappointed by Bishop Robert J. McManus’s decision to revoke the Nativity School of Worcester’s Catholic status because the school flew the Black Lives Matter and gay pride flags.
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

Link to original story is in there.

As it is the MA area bishops don't exactly have values that align with the state on whole.
 
Helix

Helix

Mayor of Clown Town
Member
Jun 8, 2019
23,998
"This is also true of 'Black Lives Matter,'" McManus said. "The Catholic Church teaches that all life is sacred and the Church certainly stands unequivocally behind the phrase 'black lives matter' and strongly affirms that all lives matter."
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IF society really believed that "all lives matter" and that all people are to be treated equally then we wouldn't be fucking be having a conversation about Black Lives Matter so miss with this shit and fuck off.
 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,183
Good to know that overall the teaching staff are supportive of the students, despite the actions of this fucking dog
 
Lump

Lump

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,197
Schools getting more of punishment for flying inclusive flags than priests get for fucking children.
 

Deleted member 13798

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
12,374
Weird, I worked at a Catholic college that openly had pride, diversity and inclusion, social justice banners, symbols and the like all over campus. It was even part of their "core identity" mission statement. Wonder the difference.

These "justifications" from the church here on this situation are bigoted and racist. That's all there is to it.
 
julian

julian

Member
Oct 27, 2017
16,863
The anti-LGTBQ stance isn't too shocking from a Catholic bishop but hoo boy did he go full racist.
 

Deleted member 25606

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 29, 2017
8,973
Could you fix your OP, my body seizes violently whenever someone says or writes "Worchester ", as someone from the area thats a huge bugbear for me (for those who don't know Worcester isn't pronounced that way either).

As for the Catholic Church in MA, with the amount of shuffling they did during the child abuse scandals and transferring Bernard Law to the Vatican to avoid prosecution they can get fucked when it comes to any kind of morality issue.
 
Hyun Sai

Hyun Sai

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,562
I always find the LGTBQ stance hilariously ironic coming from the catholic church ah ah ah
 
Helix

Helix

Mayor of Clown Town
Member
Jun 8, 2019
23,998
McManus said the Pride flag is inconsistent with Catholic teaching because it "represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle,"
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but I thought Jesus said "Love one another as I have loved you" during the Last Supper. I don't remember any conditionals to it.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
39,199
Well I figure if my city made national news it'd be with this story.

Fucking PATHETIC by Bishop McManus. I know several grads from nativity school, know several employees, and it's a wonderful, wonderful inclusive school. It's my example of what Catholic education can get right. It's a brilliant Catholic school that has high academic standards, an overwhelmingly minority student population, great role models for young people, an inclusive attitude that all Catholic schools should model themselves after. REally great placements and especially for kids who have tough upbringings in a working class city.

And, of course, the Bishop has been picking this fight. It's pathetic and sad.

Many are hoping that the Pope sacks McManus. He's been unpopular in the diocese for some years, the local church split between basically a Right wing Trumpist version of Catholicism, and then a large majority of more liberal boomer/gen x Catholics who went to some of the Catholic colleges in the area and more in line with the type of program that Nativity was running. Church membership in the city has plummeted, attendance has shrunk, Sundays are dead in the local churches, which used to have a thriving, multi ethnic Catholic community of Irish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Hispanic, Spanish, and all sorts of representation. A great example of the Church killing churches because of appeasing to this small, fervent ideological minority and not watching the direction of society.

McManus became Bishop after the fallout of the priest sex abuse scandals emerged in the early 2000s. The diocese of Worcester was among the worst for priestly sexual abuse, with some high profile notorious priests moving in and out of the diocese from the 60s to 90s. He was seen as being more active in listening to victims, but has been on the wrong side of these stupid cultural wars since MA approved same sex marriage around the same year he was appointed from Providence.

I live a block away from the bishops residence. Probably like… 3min walk from where I'm sitting now. THe only positive to this is that the houses around the Bishop's mansion, and it is a mansion, probably an $800,000-$1m property these days, have draped themselves in pride colors, including the immediate neighbor who has always had pride flags, but upped their displays lately. The school has also raked in donations over the issue. I've been a donor to Nativity because it's an amazing school, tuition free, specializing in good outcomes for disadvantaged kids, every alum I know is like goddam this school was amazing, incredible staff who live the Jesuit mission, great youth basketball games haha, and upped my commitment over it, meanwhile while I had my first kid baptized in the church, though I'm not religious or have any faith, this is the straw for me that's given me the break.

NYT has had good coverage of the story as well as the Globe:


https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/18/...pride-flags.html?referringSource=articleShare
 
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I_love_potatoes

I_love_potatoes

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Jul 6, 2020
1,640
Good on that school.

Religious schools are just something else...

Went to one in the UK and being forced to study "Religious Education" just because the school was religious was absolute shit. Took time away from studying actual important stuff that I would NEED in life.

Have I used anything that I learned in Religious Education outside in the real world? No.
 
napkins

napkins

Member
Nov 18, 2017
1,937
i mean, that's what being catholic is. you don't get to disagree with the church and still be catholic
 

Allard

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,937
The Albatross said:
Well I figure if my city made national news it'd be with this story.

Fucking PATHETIC by Bishop McManus. I know several grads from nativity school, know several employees, and it's a wonderful, wonderful inclusive school. It's my example of what Catholic education can get right. It's a brilliant Catholic school that has high academic standards, an overwhelmingly minority student population, great role models for young people, an inclusive attitude that all Catholic schools should model themselves after. REally great placements and especially for kids who have tough upbringings in a working class city.

And, of course, the Bishop has been picking this fight. It's pathetic and sad.

Many are hoping that the Pope sacks McManus. He's been unpopular in the diocese for some years, the local church split between basically a Right wing Trumpist version of Catholicism, and then a large majority of more liberal boomer/gen x Catholics who went to some of the Catholic colleges in the area and more in line with the type of program that Nativity was running. Church membership in the city has plummeted, attendance has shrunk, Sundays are dead in the local churches, which used to have a thriving, multi ethnic Catholic community of Irish, Italian, Polish, Lithuanian, Hispanic, Spanish, and all sorts of representation. A great example of the Church killing churches because of appeasing to this small, fervent ideological minority and not watching the direction of society.

McManus became Bishop after the fallout of the priest sex abuse scandals emerged in the early 2000s. The diocese of Worcester was among the worst for priestly sexual abuse, with some high profile notorious priests moving in and out of the diocese from the 60s to 90s. He was seen as being more active in listening to victims, but has been on the wrong side of these stupid cultural wars since MA approved same sex marriage around the same year he was appointed from Providence.

I live a block away from the bishops residence. Probably like… 3min walk from where I'm sitting now. THe only positive to this is that the houses around the Bishop's mansion, and it is a mansion, probably an $800,000-$1m property these days, have draped themselves in pride colors, including the immediate neighbor who has always had pride flags, but upped their displays lately.
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Its a general problem with the Catholic church (literally one of the main reason for the protestant revolution) that so much power is beholden by a select few when most of the catholic schools I have come to know are some of the most inclusive schools I have been too. I really hope the outcry regarding this finally gets this bishop removed but he is hardly the only one that behaves this way. And as you said he was installed because he was there to fix an even larger issue that plagued that diocese and region so its not a change that happens over night.
 
CorpseLight

CorpseLight

Member
Nov 3, 2018
7,666
Once again shows that some people are too fucking stupid to understand the nuance of "Black Lives Matter" - It's not saying that Black lives are the only ones that matter, just that they matter as much as white people.
 

Deleted member 43

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 24, 2017
9,271
Fury451 said:
Weird, I worked at a Catholic college that openly had pride, diversity and inclusion, social justice banners, symbols and the like all over campus. It was even part of their "core identity" mission statement. Wonder the difference.

These "justifications" from the church here on this situation are bigoted and racist. That's all there is to it.
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Your Bishop wasn't an asshole (or at least wasn't the same kind of asshole).
 
Beren

Beren

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,578
Ah yes. I remember the part in the New Testament where Jesus promoted love but also shat on people for who they loved and their skin color.

/s
 
Surakian

Surakian

Shinra Employee
Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
10,976
Fury451 said:
Weird, I worked at a Catholic college that openly had pride, diversity and inclusion, social justice banners, symbols and the like all over campus. It was even part of their "core identity" mission statement. Wonder the difference.

These "justifications" from the church here on this situation are bigoted and racist. That's all there is to it.
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Depends on the bishop and the way the Archdiocese operates.
 
skullmuffins

skullmuffins

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,439
Vincent Alexander said:
Glad to see the donations pouring in. This comment though:



What the racist fuck?
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the blacklivesmatter.com site used to have a "What We Believe" page that said in part "We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and "villages" that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable." and naturally conservatives flipped out and "black lives matter wants to destroy nuclear families" became a talking point
 
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