Our Catholic schools took the money and ran

Recently I appeared on the TVOntario show The Agenda. The discussion was centred around the provincial government’s disguised insistence that Catholic schools promote homosexuality, but began with an argument over how genuinely Catholic the school system actually was. I suggested that at best perhaps 15 per cent of teachers were serious Catholics, that schools routinely taught non-Catholic and even anti-Catholic material, that the teachers’ union was non-Catholic, and that the overwhelming majority of children left school with no idea of what Catholicism was, and no intention of being committed Catholics.

My opponent, who refused to even look at me before the show, described this as “apocalyptic” and “Machiavellian” and insisted that the Ontario Catholic school system was consistently and aggressively Catholic, and that there were few if any problems. It was a groaning claim that we have a faithful, informed and devout Catholic school system.

I said at one point that legions of Catholic parents would be incredulous at his arguments, either laughing or weeping at the propaganda. The e-mails I’ve received since the show have proved me right, including one that was sent two days later from a Toronto District Catholic School Board address. This one, though, made the point in a somewhat different way.

It came from a senior official and promoted someone called Janice Sevre-Duszynska. The letter boasted that “as a member of the Roman Catholic Women Priests, she and others like her relentlessly challenge the Church’s dogma including women’s right to be ordained as priests. Her story and those of many other determined women have been featured in the award winning documentary, Pink Smoke Over the Vatican. In 1998, Janice made national news when she interrupted an ordination ceremony at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Lexington, Kentucky, asking to be ordained. She was refused. In 2000, she garnered media attention yet again during a U.S. bishops’ conference in Washington, D.C., where she made a public announcement during the gathering of 300 male bishops calling for the ordination of women. After organizers silenced her microphone, she refused to leave the meeting until police escorted her out of the hotel.” The letter went on, “Finally, in August, 2008, with more than 150 people in attendance, Janice celebrated the joyous event of her ordination with family, friends, fellow peace activists and supporters of women’s ordination.” Hubris and unintentional humour mixed with audacity and arrogance.

There was no humour at all, however, in an anecdote shared with me the same week, telling of a young, highly qualified woman training to be a Catholic teacher, who was told by her instructor, “if you quote the f****** Pope again, I’ll fail you.”

Or the woman teacher who told me, her face creased with pain, that every after-school group was given Coke and pizza, apart from the prayer group; or the transgendered beauty pageant contender invited to speak to a Catholic school; or the numerous pro-abortion politicians and activists paid to indoctrinate Catholic children; or the exclusion of clergy; or the welcoming of Gay-Straight Alliances, not on the grounds of anti-bullying but the affirmation of homosexuality; or the teachers who seldom attend Mass, live together, use contraceptives, mock Church doctrine and don’t even know what their faith is; or the orthodox teachers marginalized and mocked.

Yes I know there are still many good and true Catholic teachers and even some Catholic schools, and I hear from them on a regular basis. But anybody who insists that the system is still Catholic is either horribly misled or terribly dishonest. We took the state’s money, and now we pay a much higher price. This, combined with the damage done by those who took advantage of Vatican II to attack the Church, has led to a crisis that may now be beyond repair. I say this not with relish but regret.