In eight months, my wife and I will send our two older children to a Catholic school in the Arlington diocese, so we’re concerned about what happens within the system. The article cited by John below is disturbing, but more because of the behavior of the protestors than the proposed sex abuse curriculum.
I have no opinion on whether “Good Touch, Bad Touch” is appropriate for kids or contradicts Catholic values. Not having seen it, I refuse to base my opinion on heresay. I do have an opinion on the obnoxious behavior of those who disagree with the curriculum. If you disagree with someone, don’t yell things or pray the Rosary to “drown out…the diocesan director of child protection and safety.”
I wasn’t there, so I can’t confirm Julia Duin’s account — but she has a well-deserved reputation for fairness and she wouldn’t write something like that unless it was true. Anyone who was there and wants to correct me, I’ll gladly amend this post.
If you were there and you were one of the people shouting or praying loudly, let me tell you something as your brother in Christ. You don’t advance orthodoxy (or orthopraxy) by making asses of yourselves, and by implication the cause you represent. How can we say that living an authentically Catholic life will make us better people if the people living that life are acting like jerks?
If you’re so fond of quoting Church documents, you might want to take a look at the Catechism’s section on blasphemy, and reflect on the part about “misusing God’s name.” You think Jesus and Mary appreciate their names being used to silence an employee of the Church — even if that person is wrong?
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I don’t mind what happened too much, Eric. Ordinary people who don’t have a PR organization and a weekly newspaper at their service are more silenced by the requirements of niceness than is some diocesan official by their shouting.
Richard, I know several of the people involved at the diocesan office, and they’re good folks, and eminently reasonable. I know the editor of the diocesan paper as I worked for him from 1995-97, and he’s committed to the faith in its full-strength version. It’s unfair to them to assume they’re down with The Man.
Our obligation to be charitable doesn’t get suspended, even if we have a grievance against something the diocese is doing. Let the liberals be nasty.
Eric… you present a facet of this story that I hadn’t considered – thanks.
I half agree with you regarding the “drowning out with the rosary bit” and believe you when you say that the Arlington diocesan office is kosher but when the diocese implements programs we have absolutely no recourse for protest when we don’t agree with what the programs teach – and we (the disagreeing parent element) are backed up by the teaching of the Magisterium.
I don’t know about Arlington’s “Good touch, bad touch” program but the “Talk about Touching” program in Boston’s parishes is sexually explicit, is not grounded in the Church’s teaching on sexuality, was created by a group with ties to SIECUS and is manditory or else your kid can’t take part in the sacraments (First Communion, etc). Part of the problem is who exactly is teaching the material? How do I know that they are grounded/informed in the Catholic faith? For instance, my step sister teaches CCD in a parish setting. She never went to Mass regularly, has been to Confession once in the 2nd grade, was recently divorced and has two boyfriends, both of whom she sleeps with, sometimes while her daughter is at home. But the diocese will not hear of opting out and in fact has banned one of the diocese priests from speaking out about his misgivings on the “Talk about Touching” program.
Coleen, what you’re describing is troublesome, and you have every right to complain if what you are saying is true (I’m not saying it isn’t.)
I would disagree that you have “absolutely no recourse for protest.” You can…
— Call or write the chancery and express your misgivings.
— Talk to your parish’s pastor about the problem. He presumably has some way to communicate with the bishop.
— Find other people who agree with you, and prayerfully and charitably speak as one voice.
— Don’t assume that just because the diocese adopts a policy, it’s forever. Never give up.
— Always propose an alternative (as I believe some of the Arlington protestors were.) Don’t just say “no,” say “here’s a better and more faithful way to accomplish what you’re trying to do.”
It’s your duty to help reform your little part of the Church, and do it in a way that will not embarrass the Church to the outside world.
Dominico Bettinelli has blogged quite a bit on this subject in the past – he also lives in the Archdiocese of Boston and is familiar with this situation. Just so you know “I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP” ;-)
All of this is insurance driven and once again, the kids are paying the price for the transgressions of those who should have known better.
I expect the parents in Arlington were just fed up. You send your kids to Catholic school for a “good Catholic” education and all of a sudden the school isn’t so much different from the public school system one opted out of. It’s the big brother scenerio once again.
Not a Catholic myself, but have to agree with Eric.
I don’t know that I’d go so far as to say it’s blasphemous, but certainly is inappropriate.
Jesus warned us not to pray as the Pharisees do, loudly, for display, and with many words. Certainly the Pharisees did that many times as a political show of protest against the Roman Empire, as well as to be religious exhibitionists.
There’s a certain religious, holier-than-thou exhibitionism in saying the Rosary or offering any other loud prayer to disrupt a speech or what have you for that stated purpose alone.
If they wanted to go to the back of the room and pray or sit quietly and pray in protest of the policy and in genuinely seeking God’s will and favor in this matter, that’s cool.
I don’t know the situation in every Arlingon parish’s school. I do know, with absolute, metaphysical certainty, that at my parish school, the Catholic faith is alive and well. At the neighboring parish, it’s just fine, too. I know of no school in northern Virginia that has gone loopy, though admittedly I don’t have contacts in every school.
Colleen, I’m sorry that you’re having a hard time in Boston, but you can’t extrapolate from your mess to say, “You send your kids to Catholic school for a ‘good Catholic’ education and all of a sudden the school isn’t so much different from the public school system one opted out of.” It’s not fair to the faculty at the schools, nor to the priests who run the parish, nor to the bishop who oversees the diocese.
I don’t know that Colleen was extrapolating to other schools, but commenting on her frustration in her own experience. As for good “Catholic” education, my daughter came home one night and made the sign of the cross, not “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” but rather “Oh great, white, spirit.” I calmly (very difficult) explained that we do not believe in a “great white spirit” but in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and that’s why we make the sign of the cross that way. Now tell me if something ain’t right.
Look, people have very little power against the establishment (and I’m talking the non-priestly establishment) that makes most church policy. Our children are consistantly exposed to nominal Catholics and are taught decidedly non-Catholic teachings. When the when the non-orthodox teacher is confronted they always mention two things: their 8 eight credit hours of theology that makes them superior and that we must “obey” the Church (i.e. them). It’s funny, though, they never have to “obey” the church’s teachings on celibacy, abortion, contraception, etc. I say anything to shut these Pope wannabes up is OK!
John, you don’t know the priests or laymen involved — or if you do, you don’t mention it. *My* children are not “taught decidedly non-Catholic teachings.” Do you live in the Arlington diocese? Are you qualified to pass general judgment on it?
And to C Matt and everyone else with a grievance — unless you have a specific complaint about a specific Arlington priest or employee, you should not include them with the heterodox. Just because there are some bad apples in the American Church doesn’t mean they’re running the show in this part of the world.
…and John, “I say anything to shut these Pope wannabes up is OK!” is one of the most irresponsible comments on this blog. How about violence? That’s okay with you?
So Eric, are you sure that these people didn’t already try writing the chancery, speaking to their pastor, and forming groups to speak up politely? It’s not unheard of — maybe even common — for the chancery to not listen to objections such as this. Indeed it’s possible that they are inundated with objections, both legitimate and illegitimate, and so tend to ignore them.
I don’t know about the program, nor do I know the history, but I’m not entirely sure that vocally protesting is necessarily “uncharitable” in the strict sense of the word. What they did was rude, to be sure, but sometimes you have to be rude, e.g., when someone’s rights are being stepped on. (Consider the legitimate use of force.) If this was the first effort people made to protest, then yes, it’s inappropriate, but it’s possible there is an unstated history that justifies the protest.
I have to side with Eric. I’ve been to the Arlington diocese six times to do workshops and if orthodoxy is alive and well anywhere, it’s in Arlington. The first I was told by parishioners at All Saints (where the meeting in question took place) is that 1) Arlington was the 2nd most conservative diocese in the US (after Lincoln) and 2) in jest “We’re not pre-Vatican II, we’re pre-Council of Trent!”
People at our workshops were very reserved until we had proved it to them that we were entirely magisterial in our materials. I later discovered that I was actually the first woman to have spoken at All Saints so deep was the fear of dissenting nuns!
I’ve worked in 45 US diocese now and I can tell you that they run the full spectrum. You simply cannot assume that what is going on in Seattle is at all the current practice in Atlanta.
Trust locals like Eric on this one! The diocese may have been pastorally ham-handed in how they went about it but theological dissent is not one of the motivations at work in Arlington!
I’ve read Dom’s accounts of the TaT program. All I can say is that if they’re his best shot, that shot is woefully inadequate. Apart from, perhaps, the question of parental permission, I don’t see a serious problem with the substance of the program. “Explicit” in the mind of TaT’s opponents has nothing to do with descriptions of sex ACTS – which would be wrong – but rather with the use of correct names for “private parts” – with which there is NOTHING, ZERO, NADA, ZIP morally wrong.
A fortiori, I don’t see a problem with the Arlington program.
And I don’t think anyone who uses the Rosary as a political “drown out” chant – for reasons having little to do with “niceness” and everything to do with respect for the sacred – has anything useful to contribute to a debate about proper Catholic education.
Actually, I agree with Eric and Kevin about the use of pseudo-prayers — if they’re being “used”, they aren’t really prayers, are they? — as a protest chant. It’s a terrible lack of reverence.
On the other hand, I think parents can be right to make their mistrust plain to functionaries when they are being told something implausible — for example, that “the Charter requires this”, as if the Charter trumped parents’ rights and Vatican guidelines for sex education, and as if the program proposed for the diocese were the only possible program. Sounding off at the flak-catchers can be educative for them. It’s not niceness, but (pace Eric) it isn’t necessarily uncharitable, either.
Vocally protesting isn’t always a bad idea — indeed, it might be an obligation sometimes. (Blasphemy is always a bad idea.) I was questioning whether that was right under these circumstances. Plus, how many non-Catholics are going to read that Washington Times article and think, “I’d love to join a church where the members don’t respect their leaders at all, even though they say their leaders govern with the authority of God Himself!”
Thanks, Sherry, for backing me up from a non-Arlingtonian point of view. Things aren’t perfect here, but it’s better here than most places.
Taking a bit of a different take on this discussion, the whole idea that these programs are implemented because of pressure from insurance companies is more than a bit scary. What other entity has essentially dictated the quality and quantity of our healthcare in recent years, and now is dipping its fingers into the administration of our religion and the education of our children in such major ways? That’s too much power for any industry.
I’m all for anything that can prevent further abuse, but the idealist in me wishes that these corrective actions in the Church originated from within.