Catholic Schools and Gay Parents

Image by thuynw_sp08 via Flickr

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now. Should Catholic schools allow children with gay parents to attend? I believe, yes. And I believe Jesus would say the same thing. Gay adoption is a whole other issue but if a gay couple comes to a Catholic school and wants to enroll their children, it should be allowed.

Jesus did not say, “Let the children only with perfect parents come to me”.

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver issued a statement explaining the general policy of the archdiocese. “If parents don’t
respect the beliefs of the church, or live in a manner that openly
rejects those beliefs, then partnering with those parents becomes very
difficult, if not impossible.”

So according to that statement, what other children are we going to reject based on the lives of their parents?
Single, never married mothers?
Divorced and remarried with first marriage never annulled parents?
Parents that use birth control?
Parents of another faith tradition?

The list could be endless. And, for that matter, should we start to reject kids that openly reject the beliefs of the Church? What if a student believes that abortion is ok? What if students are having sex? What if a student is homosexual (not that being homosexual is a sin)? Should we bar them from attending Catholic schools, too?

The purpose of Catholic education is to teach the Faith, teach love for God and neighbor, and to teach ethical decisions making when they are out in the world. This is something that every child has the right to receive if the parents want them to.

Obviously a gay couple wanting to send their child to a Catholic school would know the position of the Church regarding homosexual acts and as long as that couple is ok with the fact that the child would be taught this unapologetically, then I see no problem in the child’s attendance.

I read a really interesting article through Commonweal’s blog about why a lesbian couple wanted to send their adopted children to Catholic school. They adopted 2 boys from Africa and stated that they flourished under the loving environment of the Catholic school with its small student to teacher ratio and “saints for teachers”.

Can we really turn away children that have the potential to flourish in a Catholic school environment solely on the merit of their homelife?