‘She Didn’t Say Anything Contradicting Our Faith’ Says NC Catholic School About Homophobic Nun
Charlotte Catholic High School and officials from the Roman Catholic Diocese Of Charlotte last night spent almost three hours in a closed-door meeting with 1000 angry parents whose children had been subjected to homophobic lies by a regular guest lecturer.
Two weeks ago, Sister Jane Dominic Laurel delivered a presentation on gender that included all-too common anti-gay lies. Gay men are exceptionally sexually promiscuous and have 500-1000 sexual partners, Sister Dominic reportedly told the high school students. She also reportedly portrayed same-sex couples as child abusers, claimed that masturbation, being raised by a single parent or growing up in a household with an absent father, and watching pornography lead to people becoming homosexual.
Father Matthew Kauth, the school’s chaplain responsible for inviting Sister Dominic to deliver the lecture, admitted to parents that even though he had heard her making the offensive attacks against LGBTQ people, he “assumed her goodwill. She didn’t say anything that was contradicting to our faith.”
The Catholic News Herald, the only media outlet to be allowed in to the meeting because it is the official publication of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, published a statement by Father Roger Arnsparger, the diocese’s vicar of education:
Father Arnsparger explained that Sister Jane “has been invited to give this presentation very many times throughout the country in many dioceses and with great interest and success. Many said that the first part of her presentation at Charlotte Catholic High School was excellent and fully in line with the Catholic faith. There was unfortunately a misunderstanding about the content of the last part of the presentation. In that part, I understand that Sister used data from the Linacre Quarterly, a reputable journal, and from other sources. That data can be debated and, in fact, is debated back and forth by scholars who are researching the areas of human sexuality. Because of the ongoing debate, it would have been better if these studies and data were omitted from the presentation to the students.”The Linacre Quarterly is a Catholic medical journal, so its objectivity could be questionable regarding issues like homosexuality.
There is absolutely no reasonable “ongoing debate” however, about the controversial comments Sister Dominic made, and for the archdiocese to claim otherwise is false.
Parents speaking to the school leaders expressed their outrage, according to the Catholic News Herald.
The first parent to speak said her student came home after the March 21 assembly feeling ashamed and embarrassed.
“Where was the trust? Where was the communication?” she said, directing her comments to Father Matthew Kauth, the school’s chaplain who arranged for the assembly. “It is trust. It is respect. It is confidence. I have lost confidence. I do not trust your judgment and I do not respect (Father Kauth).” Her comments drew loud applause from many others.
One parent told Father Kauth, “You have divided parents, you have divided students, and we’ve lost respect for you.”
A parent who said she was representing lesbian, gay and bisexual students at Charlotte Catholic High School said Sister Jane “pounded home the message” that if these students are questioning their sexual identity, they had better stay in the closet. She also said she felt the presentation created nothing but an unsafe environment for these students at the school.
“I trust the administration here and it has brought very good and energetic talk into our household,” one parent said, but they were booed.
Another parent told Father Kauth, “You don’t know best for our children. What are you planning on doing for the healing? We want our children to remain Catholic, but we are being pushed away by the climate of what is going on here.”
“We all need to recognize that there are gay and lesbian students at Charlotte Catholic High School,” said the parent. The parent further explained that gay and lesbian students need to be embraced with love, not hatred. He said the discussion was “over the top” and never should have been allowed in the first place.
Meanwhile, outside the meeting, parents, students, and supporters of the LGBT community handed out bracelets that read, “We are all God’s children.”
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Rick Thames @rthames Follow
More than 1,000 turn out for meeting about controversial speaker at Charlotte Catholic. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/04/02/4813240/more-than-1000-attend-charlotte.html#.Uzy_IPldV78 …
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Catholics Students in North Carolina Stand Up to Anti-Gay Nun | Bondings 2.0
New Ways Ministry goesAGAINST Church teaching and is NOT a legitimate Church Ministry!
Catholics Students in North Carolina Stand Up to Anti-Gay Nun
Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel
Charlotte Catholic High School is facing protests after hosting an anti-gay lecturer known for promoting harmful falsehoods about LGBT people.
Sr. Jane Dominic Laurel, a Nashville Dominican nun and professor at Aquinas College, Nashville, spoke last Friday during a mandatory assembly at the high school. She claimed gay people are the result of absent fathers or masturbation and condemned same-gender couples as unfit parents, directly linking them to child abuse. These claims became public in a student-initiated Change.org petition, and were corroborated by an anonymous student speaking to QNotes, who also said:
” ‘Then she talked about the statistic where gay men have had either over 500 or 1000 sexual partners and after that I got up and went to the bathroom because I should not have had to been subject to that extremely offensive talk…’
” ‘I would like them to issue a formal apology to the students and to the parents and alumni…I want them to know how upset everyone is and for them to acknowledge that.’ “
Students and alumni also released a letter to Sr. Laurel and the school’s head Fr. Matthew Kauth, asking for a formal apology about the assembly after which, it is reported, some teachers left in tears. The letter, signed by 64 students and 86 alumni states, in part:
“As Catholic educators, it is your vocation and your responsibility to bring the message of the Church to students. However, you took advantage of this position to push your own prejudices and bigotry upon the Charlotte Catholic community despite this community’s deliberate efforts to avoid it when presented as an extracurricular event…
“Presenting these false ideas to high school students not only advocates discrimination of LGBTQ students, but also tells those individuals that they are damaged or incomplete. Consider for a moment the severe and ongoing effect this type of message has on the current LGBTQ students at Charlotte Catholic. Consider the power this message has to empower bullies of these same students…
“Last week’s presentation represents a betrayal of trust. Your responsibility to provide nurturing and informative education to the students of Charlotte Catholic was shrugged off. Your mission to truthfully convey the teachings of the Church—the teachings of love, compassion, and humility—was replaced by teachings of hate and intolerance.”
Critics also questioned Sr. Laurel’s denigration of women by promoting antiquated gender roles and her condemnatory comments against divorced and single parents. Catholic parents of students at the school also initiated a letter writing campaign targeting everyone from the high school’s administration to the Vatican. The Charlotte Observer reports:
“Shelley Earnhardt, who is divorced and who sent one of the emails, wrote that ‘in my home, there was outrage, embarrassment, sadness, disbelief, and further reason for my 16-year-old to move as far away from her religion as possible and as soon as she can.’
“Other parents faulted the school for not notifying them about the sensitive nature of Laurel’s planned remarks. ‘It’s too big of a topic for parents to be surprised,’ said Casey Corser.”
In response, the Diocese of Charlotte has scheduled a meeting with parents tonight to discuss Sr. Laurel’s lecture, which will be closed to the media and which Bishop Peter Jugis will forgo. Diocesan spokesperson David Hains defended Sr. Laurel’s remarks, saying she was a frequent speaker throughout the diocese and held a doctorate from a Catholic university in Rome. However on the topic of homosexuality itself, Hains focused on the positive teachings about respect and human dignity, and clarified that Church teaching does not link homosexuality and masturbation.
This situation in Charlotte is extremely troubling. Sr. Laurel’s record of inflammatory anti-gay remarks is well known. One wonders why administrators thought she would be appropriate for a teenage audience, of whom at least some are struggling to define their identity, including their sexual orientation and gender.
What gives hope from this terrible incident is that the students have shown they are people well-formed by the Gospel. They condemned Sr. Laurel’s intolerance from a faith perspective, following Pope Francis in living out a Catholicism defined by “love, compassion, and humility.” As we witnessed with the students at Eastside Catholic High School in Seattle these past months, and now in Charlotte, the Church’s emerging generation has little tolerance for anti-LGBT prejudice from the Church’s leadership. Most importantly, they show a willingness to act up and ‘make a mess’ as the pope urged them when injustices do occur.
–Bob Shine, New Ways Ministry
22 Responses to Catholics Students in North Carolina Stand Up to Anti-Gay Nun
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http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/04/01/4810338/controversial-nun-cancels-may.html
But supporting the view of “the nun’s side” is this — from some far-right-wing priest named “Fr. John Zuhlsdorf”:
http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/03/sisters-explains-the-situation-spittle-flecked-nutty-bullying-intimidate-ensue/
Clearly there is no end in sight for the horrific culture wars that are ripping the Church apart — and this in spite of the astounding healing initiative launched by Pope Francis himself.
Even I never heard such garbage. What is wrong with the Catholic church.