New school guidelines on transgender students are 'madness,' says Canadian bishop

January 15, 2016

Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, Alberta, has written that new proposals to accommodate transgender students “smack of the madness of relativism” and “must be rejected.”

In a letter to the faithful of Calgary, Bishop Henry said that “totalitarianism is alive and well in Alberta.” He was responding to guidelines sent to school administrators by the province’s education minister, directing that students who identify themselves as “transgender” must be allowed to dress, and use the bathrooms of, the opposite sex.

Bishop Henry said that the rules “show no evidence of consultation with or sensitivity to the Catholic community.” The government’s approach tolerates no dissent, he said. He went on to say that “gay-straight alliance” groups within the schools are “highly politicized ideological clubs” working for change. “The view of sexuality that they espouse is not Catholic,” he wrote.

In his pastoral letter the bishop outlined the fundamental teachings of the Catholic church regarding human sexuality. He closed by citing a Supreme Court ruling that the government does not have the right to tell Catholic institutions how to speak about the faith.

 

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Further information:

• Calgary's bishop condemns 'totalitarian' plan for LGBTQ rules in schools (Brandon Sun)
• Totalitarianism in Alberta (Bishop Henry's letter)