The Cincinnati Post |
Local News
|
April 8, 1998 |
|
Officials at St. Xavier High School told parents that they are not teaching or condoning homosexuality, but said a presentation on discrimination will go on today as planned.
Marion Weage, a Greater Cincinnati member of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), will tell juniors first-hand stories about how her children and other young people suffer discrimination because of their homosexuality, said David B. Mueller, St. Xavier principal. ''Basically I tell them about my kids, because they were all very accomplished,'' Mrs. Weage said. ''I tell about each of them and then I say which one of them do you think is gay? They (the students) have all kinds of strange ideas . . . and I say this shows how much misinformation there is out there.''  Some parents, alumni and friends of the Jesuit high school protested Mrs. Weage's appearance, contending that Roman Catholic teaching on the issue is not fully presented and that homosexuality is presented as an acceptable lifestyle. The group, headed by Patrick Mechley, a 1962 graduate of St. Xavier, said Mrs. Weage's presentation is just a part of their deeper concerns that St. Xavier is not following proper Catholic teaching. ''The content of the discrimination unit is used to promote a homosexual agenda,'' Mechley said Tuesday. ''Second, there has been a consistent effort to keep parents uninformed. The parents' request is for the elimination of PFLAG and any person not fully in agreement with the Catholic faith, as part of the presentation to this class . . .'' |
In a letter to parents Tuesday, Mueller and school president Rev. William L. Verbryke, S.J., assured them that ''the class on April 8, the junior Social Justice/Morality class, the rest of the school curriculum and all administrative actions of the school are guided by the Magisterium, the official teachings of the Catholic Church.
''The class seeks to help juniors form the conviction that discrimination is never justified.'' The president and principal also noted that although Mrs. Weage is a member of PFLAG, ''the agenda of the organization is absent from the discussion: Mrs. Weage speaks only as a mother who has experienced discrimination against her children . . .'' Mrs. Weage said the stand of the Catholic Church on the issue of homosexuality in these classes ''is always stated. These are religion classes. If the kids don't bring it up, the teachers will.'' St. Xavier is a private Catholic boys' school operated, sponsored and directed by a religious community, the Society of Jesus, and dependent on that community for financial support and operating policies. It is not directly under the control of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. But the archbishop, Mueller said, is the superintendent of all religious education in the archdiocese. Dan Andriacco, archdiocesan communications director, said that if a school were using an objectionable textbook, hypothetically the archbishop could say the school was not considered Catholic. The archbishop could punish or close the school. By Sharon Moloney, staff reporter
|
 |
 |
