“Boards prepare for new equity strategy”

            That was the title of an article by Sheila Dabu in Toronto’s Catholic Register, Jan. 3, 2010. The “Boards” referred to in the article are the school boards of Ontario, and, one supposes, with such a title most people would have glanced at it and passed on to something more exciting. So what is this “equity strategy?”

            It turns out that “equity strategy” means that the homosexual lifestyle is to be taught and promoted in all Ontario schools, including all Catholic schools. In other words, the title borrowed from the Ministry of Education did its work even in a Catholic weekly: it disguised the revolutionary nature of the government’s plan.

            The article revealed that the Liberal government of Ontario’s Catholic Premier Dalton Mc Guinty had allowed Kathleen Wynne, his publicly-known lesbian Minister of Education, to move forward as one would expect the Minister to do, namely to impose her “lifestyle” on the general population. That lifestyle, as one may recall, was recognized by Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin in 2005 as the new orthodoxy about marriage: his government scuttled the old definition of marriage “as a voluntary union for life between a man and a woman,” replacing it with “a union between any two persons.” At the time many Canadians had shrugged their shoulders, not believing that the legal quibbling could or would affect them. They refused to take opponents of the change in legislation seriously. Today they may well see their children being propagandized as the result of their earlier indifference.

            As the means for achieving success, the strategy calls for the creation of “gay-straight student alliances” in every school. The reason for their creation is to fight “homophobia:” yet, Canadian schools have had no incidents of unprovoked attacks on homosexuals to speak of. However, over the last 20 years or more, but especially since 2005, the term homophobia has come to be understood in certain circles (such as those of the eleven provincial and Federal Human Rights Commissions and Tribunals, for example) as any disapproval of the homosexual life and agenda. And that is the rub.

            It means that the Ontario government’s “equity strategy” is really a direct attack on Christian doctrine, Catholic education, and the traditional family life of the vast majority of Canadians of all religions and beliefs.

            The president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA), James Ryan, is reported as saying his group “welcomes the government’s new strategy because accommodating other religions and denouncing discrimination are part of the Catholic Church’s teaching.” One trusts that Mr. Ryan is aware that moral theology distinguishes between unjust and just discrimination, with the later being a necessary virtue for right judgement and action. The two key documents to be consulted are “The Pastoral care of homosexuals” (1986) and “Some considerations on legislation prohibiting discrimination against homosexual persons” (1992), both documents of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. A third complementary statement is called “Family, marriage and de facto unions “ issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family in 2000 **. These are not some occasional writings of limited authority. Rather, they constitute the substance of natural law teaching about homosexuality—valid for everyone.

            On January 18, Ontario’s Premier shuffled his cabinet, moving his Minister of Education over to head the Ministry of Transport. Was this a disapproval of sorts for the attempt to homosexualize Ontario schools? One does not know. But the Premier, who has rejected Church teaching on abortion and homosexuality for years, would require a conversion to become the saviour of sanity in the schools. For that to happen we will need a resounding “No” from Catholic parents, teachers, priests, principals… and, especially, the Ontario bishops. It is encouraging to know that in mid -January 2010 our Ontario bishops rejected a Grade 11 “Gender Studies” course promoted by the Ontario Minister of Education. That was on behalf of the Catholic school boards. The public system has no defenders against ministerial immorality. But public schools are welcome to borrow from the bishops to develop their own resistance against this assault. The Church’s moral teaching is not just for Catholics. Based on natural law it defends the rights, the freedoms and the common good of all citizens.

            One more note. In December 2009 Quebec’s Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Kathleen Weil, released a policy that assigns the government the task of eliminating all forms of “homophobia” and “heterosexism” from society—including the belief that homosexual activity is immoral. So get ready.