Monday, May 17, 2010

Catholic School Boots Boy with Lesbian 'Parents'

The Archdiocese of Boston said . . . that administrators of a small Catholic elementary school in Hingham were not following archdiocesan policy when they rescinded admission of a prospective student after learning that his parents are lesbians.

-- From "Catholics fight move to deny schooling to children of lesbians, gays" by Dan Gilgoff, CNN 5/15/10

Progressive Catholic groups vented outrage Friday over the decision of a Roman Catholic school in Massachusetts to rescind the admission of an 8-year-old student because his parents are lesbians.

Other liberal Catholic and gay groups issued similar statements Friday, responding to news reports this week that a child accepted to St. Paul Elementary School in Hingham, Massachusetts, for the fall was told he couldn't enroll after the school learned that his parents are gay.

In March, the Archdiocese of Denver, Colorado, supported a decision by a Catholic school in Boulder to block two students with gay parents from re-enrolling.


. . . the Boston Archdiocese met with one of the child's parents on Thursday and that it has offered to help enroll him in another Catholic school in the archdiocese.

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From "2 views on excluding lesbians’ son" by Lisa Wangsness, Boston Globe Staff 5/13/10

The Rev. James Rafferty, pastor of St. Paul parish, and Cynthia Duggan, the school’s principal, did not respond to requests for an interview yesterday afternoon. Lisa Lipsett, an adviser to the school’s PTO Executive Committee, referred all questions to the archdiocese.

Christine Smith, a member of the Hingham School Committee and a St. Paul’s parishioner, said last night that she would have no immediate comment because she did not know enough about the school’s decision.

Although Catholic schools integrate church teachings into their curriculum and ethos, they also accept students of any religious background, as well as children whose parents are divorced, even though the church forbids divorce and remarriage.

Attorney Shawn Gaylord, public policy director for the New York-based Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, an advocacy group for gay students, said the Massachusetts law barring discrimination in schools based on sexual orientation applies only to public schools.

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