Kids Get Lesson in Respect: Shut Up You Mouth

Saint Sebastian by El Greco

Update: Read My Most Recent Post on This Subject

The ironically named Benilde-St. Margaret’s High School student paper, The Knight Errant, has been found guilty of deviancy. Officials at the St Louis Park Catholic school removed a student editorial that criticized the nakedly political ploy by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to squander $1 million on a DVD opposing same-sex marriage that went out to church members before the election. (Gosh, I wonder whether the church had any more pressing needs? And I wonder which candidate for governor supported the DVD? And which political party wants to put a Constitutional amendment on the ballot ruling out gay marriage? Hmmm…)

But the saddest part 0f this situation is that school officials also censored a personal op-ed called “Life as a Gay Teenager” written by a BSM student who recently came out as gay — all the while giving lip service, so to speak, to Catholic doctrine that says “Men and women with homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity.”

Yeah, respect and compassion! Except for that kid in the corner who tried to write a personal essay about his own struggle with suicidal thoughts in the on-going effort to be honest about his identity in a hostile environment of rejection and repression (here’s a link to the censored op-ed). Un-effing believable. The church continues to shoot itself in the foot. But it’s the kids who end up wounded.

Update: The perspective of local gay Catholic activist Michael Bayly