By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of the Archdiocese of Boston is standing behind the pastor of a Catholic elementary school in his diocese who made a controversial decision not to accept the child of a same-sex couple.
According to the Boston Pilot, Cardinal O’Malley is looking to the Archdiocese of Denver, where a similar situation occurred only months ago, as a precedent for how to handle the same scenario now unfolding in his backyard.
“The Archdiocese of Denver has formulated a policy that calls into question the appropriateness of admitting the children of same-sex couples,” the Cardinal said on his blog on May 19. “It is clear that all of their school policies are intended to foster the welfare of the children and fidelity to the mission of the Church. Their positions and rationale must be seriously considered.”
The case involves Fr. James Rafferty of St. Paul School in Hingham who decided to rescind an offer of admission to the child of lesbian couple. In this week’s parish bulletin, Fr. Rafferty explains to his parishioners: “ . . . (T)he principal and I believe our decision was made in the best interests of the child based upon our discernment that in a Catholic school environment, with its teaching on marriage as a covenant relationship of a man and a woman, a child from a same sex family might feel discomfit, frustration or confusion.”
Cardinal O’Malley is standing behind the pastor. “He made a decision about the admission of the child to St. Paul School based on his pastoral concern for the child. I can attest personally that Father Rafferty would never exclude a child to sanction the child’s parents,” he said. “After consulting with the school principal, exercising his rights as pastor, he made a decision based on an assessment of what he felt would be in the best interests of the child.”
In a May 18 interview with The Pilot, Fr. Richard Erickson, the archdiocese’s vicar general and moderator of the Curia echoed Cardinal O’Malley’s defense of Father Rafferty and the cardinal’s assessment that the priest acted in the interest of the child.
“In this (case), the decision he made had far-reaching consequences,” Fr. Erikson said.
He also confirmed that Fr. Rafferty acted within his rights, citing Canon Law which gives pastors the right to make decisions concerning the parish school.
Not surprisingly, the decision is causing a backlash from groups such as Catholics United, a national Catholic organization that promotes social justice, which claims it has collected 5,000 signatures from people who think the school should admit the student.
Also on the attack is the Catholic Schools Foundation (CSF), an independent organization that provides scholarship money to inner-city Catholic schools, which has threatened to cut off funds to all archdiocesan schools. “We believe a policy or practice that denies admission to students in such a manner as occurred at St. Paul’s is at odds with our values as a Foundation, the intentions of our donors, and ultimately with Gospel teaching,” said CSF executive director Mike Reardon in a May 13 letter sent to all schools in the Archdiocese.
However, the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts is calling upon the archdiocese to continue to support St. Paul’s and says the school’s action was “entirely appropriate, warranted and necessary.”
“The admission of a child of a lesbian couple to a Catholic school would only result in self-censorship, and de facto acceptance of same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption,” Doyle’s statement said in part. “The archdiocese must support Saint Paul’s.”
Doyle also questioned why a same-sex couple would want to enroll children in Catholic schools.
“A student is admitted to a parochial school with the expectation that the parents will cooperate in imparting Catholic values, a condition which it clearly does not obtain in this case. The real question here is why two people who radically repudiate the moral teachings of Catholicism would want their child educated in a Catholic school,” he said. “It would seem that they are either looking for an excuse to litigate, or an opportunity to embarrass the Church in the court of public opinion.”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
