Stonewall in a Catholic Junior School

I was shocked to read that a Catholic Junior School had invited Stonewall, the homosexual lobbying organisation, to train teachers how to deal with homophobic bullying.

There are several grounds for objection.

One is that I think it is wrong to treat bullying for different reasons separately.  All bullying is bad, not just homophobic or racist or whatever bullying.  The evidence suggests that what kids get bullied for is primarily 'difference' - which can be anything. Why privilege bullying for some differences as more problematic than others?  That leads to all manner of unfortunate consequences.  So training teachers how to deal with homophobic bullying as though that is worse than, or different from, any other kind strikes me as misguided.

The Catholic answer to bullying is good moral character formation, based on the virtues, and grown above all through prayer and the sacraments

Inviting Stonewall into a Catholic School to do such training is worse. Stonewall has an understanding of the human being, and in particular of human sexuality, that is entirely opposed to the much-vaunted Catholic Ethos which Catholic Schools strive to establish.

Even if they say nothing (when visiting the school) about their advocacy of Gay Marriage (for example) Stonewall's whole approach is founded on a set of assumptions about 'being gay' which, because it is also so dominant now in our culture, and in particular propagated with great intensity and frequency by our news and entertainment media, may easily supplant a Catholic understanding in the minds of teachers, with potentially lifelong impacts on the children in their care.

So what are the assumptions that I question, and how do they compare with the teaching of the Catholic Church?

Here are a few of the assumptions that underpin the whole notion of 'some people are gay.'

1 That we all have a 'sexual identity' which is innate and fundamental to us as individuals;

2 That discovering and being honest about our sexual identity is the way to integrity and happiness;

3 That we are able to discover our sexuality at an early age, and should be supported in doing so;

4 That living our sexuality is freedom and maturity;

5 That all sexual identities and orientations are of equal worth and goodness;

6 That questioning any of the above assumptions is homophobic and hateful.

It is worthy of note that there is no scientific consensus on any of those assertions (though there are whole swathes of academia dedicated to promoting them - but that's another story.)


By contrast, the Catholic Church teaches (inter alia) that:

1 Human sexuality is a gift from God, ordered to love and procreation;

2 As a result of the Fall, we are all damaged: how we are is not necessarily how God wants us to be;

3 The only correct use of sexual love is in faithful marriage, open to life;

4 All other sexual inclinations are disordered, and all other sexual activities are sinful, and therefore harmful;

5 True happiness and wellbeing - and the common good - are to be found in subordinating our sexual inclinations and desires to the Divine Plan;

6 We all have a vocation to discover and to live out; and for all of us that includes chastity;

7 True education includes education in the moral virtues: both understanding and practice;

8 We must love our neighbour as ourself; all are subject to disordered inclinations; all are children of God worthy of dignity, respect and love.


Clearly these two sets of assumptions do not sit easily together, which is why Stonewall has no place in a Catholic School.  Its agenda is to normalise a worldview that is at odds with, and indeed in large part hostile to, a Catholic worldview.

Thinking that children at the age of 13 or 14, those turbulent adolescent years, can and should assume a sexual identity, is misguided.  It is also a contributory factor in such shocking cases as the Oxford sex ring, when people charged with looking after girls believed it to be normal and acceptable for 13 year olds to be sexually active.  The culture of sexual liberalism that Stonewall, inter alia, cultivates has real - and devastating - consequences for real people and society at large.  Lending it any credibility at all is another reason that the School is guilty of a grave error of judgement.

In this case, Stonewall were invited into a junior school.  Those promoting a 'liberal' sexual agenda are always trying to target children at an earlier age, whether directly or by re-educating their educators. It is shameful that a Catholic school was complicit in this.

Maria purissima - ora pro nobis.