Diocese says school that flew BLM, Pride flags not Catholic

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A Massachusetts school has been told that it can't identify as Catholic after its continuous flying of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Pride flags on its campus.

Bishop Robert J. McManus of the Diocese of Worcester announced on Thursday that the Nativity School of Worcester is "prohibited" from branding itself as Catholic moving forward.

"As Diocesan Bishop, it is my sacred duty and inherent responsibility to determine when a school claiming to be 'Catholic' is acting in such a way that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church and disregards my legitimate authority as the guardian and overseer of Catholic education in the Diocese of Worcester," Bishop McManus said in the statement on the Diocese of Worcester website.

...it is my sacred duty and inherent responsibility to determine when a school claiming to be 'Catholic' is acting in such a way that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Bishop Robert J. McManus

"Despite my insistence that the school administration remove these flags because of the confusion and the properly theological scandal that they do and can promote, they refuse to do so. This leaves me no other option but to take canonical action," the bishop added.

The school, the only tuition-free Catholic school in the Diocese of Worcester, serves boys experiencing "economic insecurity."

Though the school doesn't receive any finances from the Diocese, according to Boston 25 News reported, the Catholic Bishop of Worcester knew about the flags in March of this year and asked the school to take them down or else no longer identify itself as Catholic.

Meanwhile, the school's president Thomas McKenney pointed out in a statement on Wednesdaythat the purpose of flying the flags was "to express support for making our communities more just and inclusive," adding that most of the student body are people of color and that the flags are a statement that says "that all are welcome at Nativity."

"These flags simply state that all are welcome at Nativity and this value of inclusion is rooted in Catholic teaching," he said.

However, a spokesperson with the Diocese of Worcester told Newsweek that "the Bishop has been asking the school to use alternative symbols to support the students feeling that they are respected and loved since March when he was first made aware of the flags."

In May, Bishop McManus said that "these symbols (flags) embody specific agendas or ideologies (that) contradict Catholic social and moral teaching."

However, McKenny clarified in the statement that flying the BLM and Pride flags are "not an endorsement of any organization or ideology, they fly in support of marginalized people."

The Nativity School plans to appeal the Diocese's decision and will continue flying the BLM and Pride flags, according the school's statement.

The Bishop also said that mass, sacraments, and sacramentals are not allowed to be celebrated on the school campus anymore or "be sponsored by Nativity School in any church building or chapel within the Diocese of Worcester."

The Nativity School is also banned from any fundraising activities in any institutions involving the Diocese of Worcester.

If anyone was wondering why Catholic church is losing support and followers.

Some of these local diocese are out of step with the direction Pope Francis is trying to take the church. He just appointed a progressive as the top US cardinal.

In the Gospels, the ones most concerned about "purity of Faith" were the Pharisees.
Their religion-and-law-centred stand was contrasted with God-and-human-centred teaching of Jesus.

I believe this conflict is universal, spans through faiths and centuries, we're never free from a risk of becoming another generation of Pharisees.

The problem Jesus had with the Pharisees is they incorporated man-made traditions. And they didn't practice what they taught.

And, despite literal adherence to the Law, they missed most basic morality of being decent humans.

Having spent 12 years in a private catholic college with deplorable attitudes toward LGBTQI+, toward other religions, lower socioeconomic groups, female students, other cultures (insert minority) this hardly surprises me.

If religious schools want to pull stunts like this then answer is easy. Pull every single government dollar, taxpayer funded subsidies and see how long they last charging their pupils $50,000 to cover tuition costs without government funding.

So religious schools shouldn't be allowed to adhere to their religious principles?

The church isn't wondering. Jesus made it clear that would be the result in not conforming to secularism.

Rather than adhereing to the law, they added their own ideas and rules to it. Before Jusus' time, before they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians, they kept disregarding the law in favor of secularism.

After they finally escaped captivity and reformed/rebuilt, they went in the opposite direction. But in both cases they replaced what had been established, with what was contrary.

19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

Some come to the conclusion that Jesus accepted sinners and the Pharisees rejected them. But really it was a situation where the sinners were more inclined to repent and follow the righteousness of Jesus, whereas the Pharisees choose to follow their own self-righteousness.

So...preaching hatred toward minorities, women, etc, are all examples of ... Catholic 'religious principles'?