Editorials
Dignity Canada’s Response to Bishop Henry’s Latest Tirade
Frank Testin, President Dignity Canada Dignité
Volume 30 Issue 1, 2 & 3 | Posted: April 5, 2016
INTRODUCTION
Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary is at it again, or still.
The Alberta bishop resembles Don Quixote in his active tilting at windmills. He has gained a reputation as someone always searching for a skirmish, rather than seeking to make peace with reasonable compromise. He is starting to resemble an outdated model of eccentric right wing bishop in the era of Francis The First.
This time he is labelling as totalitarian and secular relativistic, the Alberta governments efforts to decrease bullying toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students and teachers in the province’s schools including the Catholic ones. Even his own denominational school board are taking exception to his highhanded lambasting.
INTRODUCTION
Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary is at it again, or still.
The Alberta bishop resembles Don Quixote in his active tilting at windmills. He has gained a reputation as someone always searching for a skirmish, rather than seeking to make peace with reasonable compromise. He is starting to resemble an outdated model of eccentric right wing bishop in the era of Francis The First.
This time he is labelling as totalitarian and secular relativistic, the Alberta governments efforts to decrease bullying toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students and teachers in the province’s schools including the Catholic ones. Even his own denominational school board are taking exception to his highhanded lambasting.
Below is the response of Dignity Canada and some excerpts of the bishop’s letter which seems to reflect that he has studied too closely one too many traditionalist reactionary right wing Catholic polemic on the subject area. Clearly his approach is out of synch with that of the new pope but that does not seem to bother Bishop Fred. The pope will be replacing 350 bishops worldwide during 2016 (see "News Story" – Francis Dedicated to Full Implementation of Vatican II).
The letter penned by the Catholic Bishop Frederick Henry of Calgary criticizing the recently released Alberta Education guidelines sent to all school boards for the development of policies and procedures for the safety and well-being of all gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and school staff is misleading in several respects.
The Bishop’s reference to the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in 2015 on the appeal from the Loyola High School in Quebec is not persuasive for at least two reasons: (a) the Quebec high school was a private school without public funding; and (b) the legal question was whether the Quebec Minister of Education, Recreation and Sports had duly considered a request for an exception requested by Loyola to teach the provincial Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC) Program from a Catholic perspective, and not from a neutral and objective perspective as required by the provincial government. (The ERC Program has three components: world religions and religious culture, ethics, and dialogue.)
Initially, the high school planned to teach the entire curriculum from a Catholic perspective but, in the course of appealing the Minister’s ruling through the legal system, the high school changed its request to being allowed to teach Catholic ethics from a non-neutral perspective, differing from how its teachers would present other major world religions. The decision of the Supreme Court of Canada was to grant the modified exemption requested by the private Catholic high school.
Other curiosities about the Bishop’s letter:
a. Bishop Henry describes ‘relativism’ as ‘absolutist and totalitarian’… not allowing for any differing opinion. Has he forgotten that the official Catholic teaching is that LGBT persons are to be treated with respect, compassion and sensitivity? Isn’t it time we put this teaching into practice?
b. Bishop Henry paints ‘secularism’ as something dirty and in opposition to the sacred. What an unfortunate viewpoint! Protecting LGBT students from harassment and discrimination, and requiring Alberta school systems to show them care and respect is not, in any way, in opposition to the sacred.
c. The Bishop’s description of gender identity is seriously behind the times. His simplistic statement that ‘God created beings as male and female’ reveals his ignorance of modern understandings of human sexuality, in all its complexity and diversity. Policies and practices developed in 2015 must be based on current knowledge of human sexuality, and not Biblical creation myths or Greek philosophy written 2000-3000 years ago.
d. Those of us in loving same-sex marriages object to the Bishop’s reference to ‘the appropriate expression of love in the marital relationship of a man and a woman’. The ‘appropriateness’ of our love is recognized in science as well as in law. I have been happily married to another man for over five years, and I have experiential knowledge that our romantic relationship is blessed by the Divine. I see the Divine everyday in the face of my beloved and I am thankful for our relationship.
Frank Testin, President Dignity Canada Dignité