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Catholic World News News Feature

No Longer Separate? August 12, 2002

Poor Catholic formation in nominally Catholic schools in Canada has finally come back to haunt the institutions which failed in their duty to instill the Catholic faith into their students. The freedom of Catholic schools in Canada to be Catholic--in more than name only--has been challenged. And in a recent interim decision, the courts have denied that freedom.

The story revolves around a blue-haired 17-year-old male student at Msgr. John Pereyma Catholic Secondary School in Oshawa, Ontario named Marc Hall. Michael Powers, the principal of the school refused Hall permission to bring his 21-year-old homosexual "boyfriend" to the school prom as his date. The Durham Region Catholic School Board upheld the decision.

However, as Hall became the instant poster-boy for the homosexual activist movement, and consequently the darling of the media, the Durham board and school were quick to learn of their desertion by supposed allies. Rather than come to the school's defense, other Catholic boards of education in Toronto, Ottawa, and Clarington trumpeted to the media that they had allowed homosexual dates at proms. Moreover, the comment on the situation by the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Toronto seemed noncommittal.

Suzanne Scorsone, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Toronto, was quoted in the media as saying:

Essentially the Catholic Church teaches that for a romantic sexual relationship to be acted out, it belongs in a marriage and the only recognized marriage is between a man and a woman. How this is interpreted in an educational environment is up to the school board to decide. It is up to school officials to decide if attendance at a prom amounts to courting behavior of a sexual nature.

The Catholic Civil Rights League commended the school and board for their courage but lamented the sorry state of Catholic education. After the media highlighted other students at the school who backed Hall in his quest, League president Thomas Langan wrote: "We simply wish that more of the students educated in the Catholic school system understood the truly loving and caring teachings that the Church offers individuals with homosexual inclinations."

The homosexual activist movement was gearing up for a huge media and legal campaign and formed a coalition in support of Hall which included several characters of interest. Leading the Hall campaign was a homosexual activist who is a member of the Ontario provincial parliament, George Smitherman.

Another outspoken Hall supporter was the president of one of Canada's largest and most powerful unions: Basil 'Buzz' Hargrove, president of the Canadian Auto Workers union. Hargrove wrote a letter on behalf of the union in support of Hall, bashing the Church's stand on homosexuality. The support of this blue-collar union for Hall's cause seems less surprising when one notes that Kathleen Howes, the Canadian representative of the vehemently anti-Catholic group 'Catholics for a Free Choice' is a lawyer for the Canadian Auto Workers.

NOMINALLY CATHOLIC POLITICIANS

Along with support from homosexual activists and secular leaders, politicians and media personalities, Hall also received support from a group of nominally Catholic politicians from all three levels of government who attacked the school's decision.

Federal Industry Minister Allan Rock, who identified himself as Catholic and likes to quote selectively from the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the House of Commons, wrote the school board urging it to give in to Hall's demands. "I encourage you to set an example, for all Canadians, of social justice in action by not discriminating against a student based on sexual orientation.. It is our responsibility to encourage and assist young Canadians to reach their full potential rather than placing roadblocks along their journey," he wrote.

Ontario Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty also wrote the school board accusing it of being "unfair" and offending "the freedoms that have made Canada a welcome home for people in all their diversity." McGuinty alleged that Hall was "being denied some of his most basic rights as a human being and as a Canadian." Concluding his letter, McGuinty wrote, "I am appealing to you as a Canadian, as a Catholic, and as the father of four to change your decision."

In the most interesting case, Toronto City Councillor Joe Mihevic backed Hall. Mihevic, a Catholic who teaches a course on social justice at the faculty of theology of St. Michael's College in Toronto, spoke at a press conference in support of Hall's case. It is worth mentioning that Mihevic is the chairman for the citywide celebration City World Youth Day in Toronto.

THE BISHOPS SPEAK

With the prom only about a month away, the hierarchy finally issued a statement on the situation. Toronto Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Meagher wrote a response to Dalton McGuinty's letter in support of Hall. Bishop Meagher wrote: "There is also no doubt in my mind that if permission by a principal in our Catholic school system is given for any 17 year-old boy to take another male as his 'date' for the prom this will be a clear and positive approval not just of the boy's 'orientation', but of his adopting a homosexual lifestyle." The bishop noted that "a concerted effort is being made here to get the Catholic school system to approve a homosexual lifestyle and our 17 year-old is being manipulated in this effort."

After the school board reaffirmed its decision to bar the homosexual prom date--at a meeting where Hall was given an opportunity to present his case--Hall launched a lawsuit. Under the litigation guardianship of the parliamentarian Smitherman, Hall sued the school board for $100,000, asking also for an injunction that would permit him to attend the prom with his boyfriend.

Hall's lawyers argued that the board was offending Hall's rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Ontario Human Rights Code both of which include protection against discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation." In the case of the Charter, that inclusion was "read in" by the Supreme Court, although it had been explicitly rejected numerous times by legislators involved in formation of the Charter.

As if the betrayal by Catholic politicians prior to the court case were not enough, the Ontario Catholic Teachers Union intervened in the case backing Hall. Union President Cathy McVean claimed there is not "uniformity of opinion within the Catholic Church in terms of the kind of activity prohibited within Church teachings." She explained: "There are a range of interpretations as expressed by Catholic theologians."

THE COURT'S DECISION

In an interim ruling on the day of the prom, Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert MacKinnon ruled that a Catholic school and the Catholic school board could not forbid Hall from attending the prom with his homosexual date.

In the ruling McKinnon suggests that he would have ordered the school to continue with the prom had they chosen to cancel it based on his decision. "The defendants have undertaken to the court not to cancel the prom in the event that I granted the plaintiff's request relief and I accordingly make no further order."

Although Hall won the injunction ruling, the case must still go to trial and both sides have said they are willing if necessary to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada. An apt summary of the ruling was put forward by the Catholic League's Langan: "the judge has imposed homosexual conduct onto a Catholic institution."

Jewish and Anglican scholars have also reacted with alarm to the ruling. Jewish philosophy professor David Novak of the University of Toronto addressed the issue at a recent religious freedom conference, as did Anglican law professor Ian Hunter of the University of Western Ontario in a recent issue of Report newsmagazine.

Novak said: "The legal assault on the Catholic school board is an assault on the integrity of every religious community in Canada. It should not be left to the final decision of any particular human court." The Durham Catholic school board, he said "has as much right to determine who may attend its social activities and how he or she may attend them as it has the right to teach Catholic theology in its religion classes as authoritative teaching." Novak also made the telling point: "Every activity of a Catholic school should be recognizably Catholic, just as every activity of a Jewish school should be recognizably Jewish."

Hunter summarized matters with flair as he wrote: "Not only is the judging biased. Catholic school boards must also contend even with their nominal allies: priests who equivocate or say nothing on moral issues; and politicians (like Allan Rock, nominally Catholic) who sell out the church's teaching every chance they get."

In a stark wake up call to Canadian Christians Hunter said:

Separate schools were created to "indoctrinate and inculcate" the precepts of Catholic education. This judgment, if it is upheld, renders that impossible. Henceforth separate schools, like public schools, will bow down and worship the great god Equality; any deviations from the orthodoxy of human rights will be checked by court challenge.

[AUTHOR ID] John-Henry Western edits the Lifesite.com news site.