The End of Catholic Education

Equity Training for Ontario Catholic Boards: Homosexuality ‘Normal’, ‘Natural’


By Patrick B. Craine

TORONTO, Ontario, June 29, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The majority of Ontario’s Catholic education establishment has backed the Ontario Ministry of Education’s equity and inclusive education strategy, even where it mandates “equity” based on sexual orientation, on the basis that the Catholic Church has always emphasized equity and inclusivity.

But as the Catholic boards prepare to implement their new “equity” policies this fall, it would appear that they are not only being trained to welcome homosexual people, but also to endorse homosexual behavior. As a LifeSiteNews analysis of the equity strategy published today explains, one of the key “equity” experts being brought into Catholic boards is actually teaching that equity involves accepting the homosexual lifestyle itself.

Chris D’Souza, former Equity and Diversity Officer of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board, travels the province promoting equity in schools, and has given over 1400 workshops on this topic in the last eight years. He leads the Equity Summit Group and served as a member of the ministry’s ad hoc committee for developing the equity strategy.

An educator for 17 years, he has given his presentations in over a dozen Catholic boards across the province.

In one such presentation, D’Souza defines “heterosexism” - which he says must be eliminated - as “the assumption that everyone is or should be heterosexual and that heterosexuality is the only normal, natural sexual orientation.” That presentation can be found on the Ottawa Catholic school board’s website.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, on the other hand, calls homosexual inclinations “objectively disordered,” and calls those with such tendencies to chastity. Homosexual acts, the Catechism states further, are “acts of grave depravity,” and “under no circumstances can they be approved” (2357-2359).

In the same presentation, D’Souza urges teachers to stay on top of the most current “politically correct” language. “As Educators, You have a moral obligation to engage in politically correct and inclusive language in EVERY conversation you are a part of,” he insists. In this vein, he explains the acronym LGBTQQIAA, listing and defining the appropriate word for each form of homosexuality or homosexualism.

As part of the equity strategy, the ministry is requiring all boards, Catholic and public, to explicitly endorse the Ontario Human Rights Code and revise all board practices in accordance with it. Pro-family groups and individuals have objected, however, because the Code recognizes “sexual orientation” as a ground for non-discrimination, which they say will lead to the outright normalization of homosexual behavior.

Many are also concerned by the fact that in January a spokesperson for the ministry refused to state whether Catholic schools would continue to be able to teach the Catholic beliefs on homosexuality as laid out in the Catechism. This despite the fact that the new strategy was developed in conjunction with the Catholic constituency, including the Ontario bishops’ own Institute for Catholic Education.

Today's LSN analysis emphasizes that the homosexualist movement, which is agressively pushing the "equity" policies, “is not at all about tolerance and as the old adage puts it, to simply ‘live and let live.’” Instead, the movement is “intolerant, inequitable and un-inclusive. … It is an aggressive, radical propagandist machine … that is forcing its agenda into the sanctity of everyone’s home, into the youngest of children’s classrooms and now even into your Church, Synagogue and Mosque.”


Read the LSN analysis here.


See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

Analysis: False Gospel of ‘Equity’ Lures Ontario Catholic School Boards
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10062901.html

‘Equity’: Ontario School Board Nixes Christian References in Policy
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10062311.html

Ontario Gvmt to Host Symposium on "Equity" for School Trustees
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10060208.html

Levant, Stefanowicz Trounce Imposition of Pro-Gay Policy on all Ontario Schools
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jun/10060207.html

Ontario Gvmt Won't Say Whether Catholic Schools Can Teach Beliefs on Homosexuality
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jan/10010807.html

This is the final result of too many liberals in our Catholic school system for too many years.