Archbishop Gomez urges rejection of vaccination, gay-textbook bills
July 07, 2011
Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles has called upon California lawmakers to reject two bills that “represent a dangerous government intrusion into parents’ rights.”
The first would permit children 12 or over to obtain the HPV vaccination and treatment related to sexually transmitted diseases without parental consent. “By passing this bill, in effect, government would be encouraging young people to engage in activities that are contrary to their parents’ moral values--and then to lie about it or keep it secret from their parents,” said Archbishop Gomez.
The second bill, which has passed the legislature and awaits the governor’s signature, requires schools to use textbooks that “accurately portray” the “contributions” of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans.”
In addition, schools would be forbidden to use instructional materials that “contain any matter reflecting adversely upon persons on the basis of … sexual orientation” and materials that contain “any sectarian or denominational doctrine or propaganda contrary to law.”
“This amounts to the government rewriting history books based on pressure-group politics,” said Archbishop Gomez. “It is also another example of the government interfering with parents’ rights to be their children’s primary educators.”
The prelate also praised Justice Clarence Thomas’s dissenting opinion in a Supreme Court decision involving the sale of violent video games to minors.
“Let us work to become a people who no longer resort to abortion, birth control, in vitro fertilization and divorce,” the archbishop added. “Let us build a future for our nation in which children grow up in families based on God’s law and the natural law.”
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Further information:
- We need to stand up for parents and families (The Tidings)
- Bill urging gay school textbooks on Brown's desk (Capitol Weekly)
- Text of bill (State of California)
- Destroying Parental Rights Over Kids’ Healthcare in California (Secondhand Smoke)
- Justice Thomas’s dissent (Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Assn., p. 38)
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Posted by: Defender -
Jul. 07, 2011 10:35 AM ET USA
Somehow this isn't too surprising...California's Jesuit-trained governor will sign both bills, he's proven himself all too often in the past to be distainful of his Catholicism. Unfortunately we also have Catholic school administrators who are sympathetic to these issues who ignore Catholic teachings and convey their wishes to their staffs. In many ways these people are more insidious to the Faith.
