Teaching with Blood

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Mar 09, 2010

Yesterday’s news story about the decision of a Denver Catholic school not to accept a child being raised by two lesbians makes me nervous (Denver Catholic school: Lesbian couple’s child may not re-enroll). The decision was both correct and well-explained, as it makes no sense for the child’s guardians to place him in a school which must teach that his family situation is fundamentally disordered, that his “family” is built on a lie.

But it makes me nervous because it is only a matter of time before somebody tests a situation like this in the courts. It is a very good thing that parochial schools typically don’t operate with Federal grants or undertake Federal and State contracts, or Catholic schools would almost certainly end up very quickly in the same situation as Catholic adoption agencies. Even so, there is not a lot of prejudicial legal distance between the two. If Catholic institutions must treat same-sex couples the same as others in the matter of child placement, might they not soon be required to do the same in the matter of child education? Might they not only have to accept such “families” as part of the school community but also adjust the curriculum accordingly?

This is why I have had serious misgivings about the decision of some Catholic agencies to avoid violating Catholic moral principles by simply getting out of the adoption business. The Church, after all, cannot get out of the education business without ceasing to be herself. Sooner or later we will have to go to court ourselves to challenge government authority in such matters. Failing success there, government authority will have to be either ignored or, if necessary, resisted.

Meanwhile, there will apparently never be a shortage of ill-formed “Catholics” already enrolled in such schools to take the secularist side, feeling sorry for the “persecution” of gay and lesbian “families” rather than understanding and defending authentic marriage and the culture of life. Those who follow the links in the Denver story will see that the press is already hot on the heels of some in the school community who are “hurt” by the school’s decision. Talk about your Trojan horse.

Battles, of course, have to be picked carefully, but some carefully-selected battles now might postpone or, God willing, eliminate the day when all our backs are to the wall. Even if bad precedents are already established in the matter of adoption, no adverse precedent must be set in the matter of Catholic schools. When the battle is joined, if the Catholic school cannot win, it must not voluntarily abandon the field, even in the face of a “legal” decision. It is necessary instead to make the government actually resort to force.

I’m sorry, but this is the Catholic way: If the Church cannot teach with words, she must teach through suffering. If necessary, she must teach even with blood.