A Massachusetts middle school lost its Catholic status...

...after a dispute with a bishop over pride flags at school. As a Catholic, I'm getting so angry that this is un-Christian and un-Catholic! What ever happened to the words of the Book of Leviticus, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself"?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-massachusetts-middle-school-lost-its-catholic-status-after-a-dispute-with-the-bishop-over-pride-flags-at-school/ar-AAYC7GZ?ocid=NL_ENUS_A1_00010101_1_1&bep_ref=1&bep_csid=49106

@angeldeb82: Catholics are not against gay people so the bishop is wrong.

I bet they can't even rape children now.

You're a catholic?

Yes, why?

Then it's interesting you're not aware of the 1-2 dozen passages in the bible that speak out against it. The bible followed by catholic leadership.

The Catholic stance is NOT to hate gay people. Period. While the church considers all instances of non marital sex a sin, they do not teach hating the individual. You're wrong. Also what are these dozens of passages? Can you show me where Jesus spoke on it.

Aren't there far more passages dealing with divorce and remarriage than there are against homosexuality?

Yep.

I guess the bishop votes Republican :P

That's a sure bet.

Catholics don't follow Jewish law FYI.

Years back I was watching Kite Runner with a friend who served in Afghanistan and I was saying to him how weird it was like these religious militants have very strict rules but a bit confused as to how this bad guy raping young boys is acceptable as I'd imagine homosexuality is something that would be severely punished under their religious laws. He said "well, to them homosexuality is when men have sex with other men, a boy is not a man, there's the loophole"... anyhow, I sometimes wonder if the Catholic Church prescribes to this same philosophy. They are staunchly anti-LGBT but seem to support their priests who molest young boys.

No one actually follows Leviticus.

20:10 Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death. Because they have cursed their father or mother, their blood will be on their own head.

Don't swear at your parents, kids. They will fucking kill you.

20:9 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.

19:27 Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.

17:15 Anyone, whether native-born or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then they will be clean. But if they do not wash their clothes and bathe themselves, they will be held responsible.

15:19

‘When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.

20 Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean.

21 Anyone who touches her bed will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.

22 Anyone who touches anything she sits on will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.

23 Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, they will be unclean till evening.

Got that folks? Don't touch menstruating chicks.

Can't believe I forgot this one. Leviticus 11:

⁹ These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.

¹⁰ And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:

¹¹ They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.

¹² Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

Oysters are the balls of Satan. You keep that shit out of your mouth.

Haven't seen a single Catholic priest keep his job if he's caught molesting children. They are thrown in jail and treated as criminals as they should be.

Compare that to the LGBTQ+ plus community that openly supports children at drag shows. Their are degenerates in every religion but in the gay community it is openly celebrated.

It specifically says when men lay with other men as they would a woman, it's an abomination, and they deserve death. Denying the Catholic church is against it isn't really rooted in reality. They are, they always have been.

Leviticus 18:22

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Romans 1:26-27

For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

@eoten: Again Catholics do not follow Jewish law. Do you know what Leviticus is? Three guesses, the first two don't count.

As for Romans, history and culture.

@eoten: Leviticus also says shellfish are an abomination. Didn't stop my church from hosting an annual crab cioppino night.

There's decades of documented cases where not only do Catholic priests molest children but also church hierarchy attempting to cover it up.

Religious anti-LGBT nuts recently tried making a ruckus of a drag queen hosting a children's story reading event so if those are the acts of degeneracy you're referring to then that's a laughable accusation to think such things are even comparable. Try to explain how that's causing irreparable damage to children sounds like the makings for a stand-up comedy shtick...

Yea it's disgusting and they got wrecked over it. At no point did Catholics accept it as normal though. They cleared house and the catholic church had a rough time for years. It was criticized by the media as it should have been.

However compare that to the degenerate trash on the left that is celebrated... and no I'm not talking about drag queen story hour I'm talking about this.

Tell me your ok with 11 year olds beings sexualized in front of grown men? Look at how mainstream media celebrates iI? The videos of him getting dollar bills stuffed in his pants by grown man is honestly disgusting but worse because you loons actually celebrate it. Compare that to the Catholics and Christians who were ashamed of the church and demanded the perpetrators be locked up or worse.

Losing their status as a religious school because they are not hateful enough? Sounds like church 101.

Disagreeing with something isn't the same at hating it. It's possible to disagree with people without hating them.

@silentchief: people shouldn't be stuffing dollar bills in any kids pants but I don't see anything wrong with this kid expressing himself like he is, nobody twisted his arm or indoctrinated him into it, it's his choice, he has parents that support his decisions rather than overbearing suppression their kid's self expression and identity. That's the kind of stuff that really fucks up a child, leads them toward suicide.

I'd wouldn't even say this is any more appauling than say parents who subject their kids to participate in beauty pageants, if anything beauty pageants just reinforce constrictive gender roles that limit the value of women to their objectification and are much worse for children, but get a free pass in religious rural America because they reinforce antiquated social norms traditionalist bigots want to keep alive.

Drag is also a performance art. Typically performers fashion themselves as extremely hyperbolic representations of the opposite gender. That isn't the same as sexualizing the performer. The creative efforts go toward extravagant costumes, make-up, hairstyles and accessories, and playing up the persona the artist has constructed. They also typically put on some kind of entertaining performance art for an audience at drag events, the point being to entertain. Of course for those that find the whole spectacle to be perverse probably think the whole spectacle is designed to humor people's sexual desires, that really just says more about them though.

Eh, just another bigot using religion as an excuse to be a bigot. You don't need an excuse, folks, if you want to be an asshole you can just be one. I mean, you shouldn't of course....but c'mon it's 2022 folks.

Also a few hundred thousands French boys just called, they said the Catholic Church is fine with gay stuff.

It's really funny when you take it literally, I don't understand fundamentalists at all because basically it's like "Holy shit guys watch out for menstruating chicks THEY'RE JUST GOING TO GET BLOOD EVERYWHERE!" haha.

I mean when you take it literal it is at its most ludicrous. I'm sure in the pre-refrigeration, pre-tampon, pre-government times that existed it was totally sensible to warn people about periods, easily-spoiled meat like pork, and why we shouldn't steal or murder but c'mon get with the program.

Ultimately literal interpretations are just excuses for people to exercise their prejudices.

Fundamentalism or literalism or whatever you want to call it, whether applied to religion or the Constitution, is the most intellectually dishonest thing you can possibly do I think. I have more tolerance for flat earthers.

lol, saying that these people should not even exists is not a fucking disagreement.

if we come from adam and eve.....

he all brothers and sister i never knew i had..

@silentchief: "Haven't seen a single Catholic priest keep his job if he's caught molesting children. They are thrown in jail and treated as criminals as they should be."

I'm sorry, are you fucking serious?

They don't keep them now. Jail, of course, is up to civil authorities and I'm not sure what happens. And as an FYI, while it makes the press, many other institutions with the same problem do not.

What's there to disagree with? That's like saying I don't hate you because you're black, I just disagree with your choice of skin color.

It's a dumb and antiquated argument, which of course I think you already know.

That's all true, but I was also taught to not hate the sinner, but the sin itself. And that no human has the right to judge another, only god can do that.

I mean, back when I still actually believed in the Abrahamic God that is :P

Matthew 7-1 to 7-3:

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

I guess it all depends on which set of passages one wants to prioritize. I know I'm definitely guilty of other things that are just as big of a "sin" in God's eyes.

Right, but in the eyes of the church leadership, flying a pride flag is essentially encouraging the sin as well. It's pretty asinine to believe the church wouldn't be against it. I'm not even religious, but to believe the Catholic church isn't against it is simply ridiculous.

False. In the eyes of the bishop. Catholics are taught to love all people, including gay people. As I said any sex without marriage is a sin. All are equal in that.

And apparition was right. Read his first paragraph over.

Back to the topic at hand, the Catholic Church does believe homosexuality is a sin. So I don't see why anyone would think for a second they'd be obligated to display a flag celebrating it.

It's quite possible to tolerate others without agreeing with their lifestyle or giving it the stamp of approval.

Displaying a group's flag, generally implies agreement with, or acceptance of said group's ideology, so yes. It does mean advocacy in this case.

It's a centralized, organized religion that has been ruled by a hierarchal power structure for nearly a thousand years. I'd call that obligated. Don't like it? Don't be Catholic. There are dozens of less authoritarian flavors of Christianity out there.

That's your assumption.

You want to come in and here and lecture and yet you're wrong. The centralized figure is the Pope. Not a bishop in the United States. Also you're espousing bigotry but I'm not surprised.

You do understand the pope is elected right? He's elected by 120 cardinals from around the world, and is himself a prior high ranking member of the church. It's not a democracy, not even sure you could call it a republic. It closer resembles a 1-party dictatorship. They have rankings, and positions. The pope is at top, then cardinals, then archbishops, then bishops, then priests, then deacons, and at the very bottom, the people. Each ranking has authority over the ones beneath it. That beans bishops absolutely can pull rank over priests and deacons.

So yes, a bishop does have the authority to do what this one did. And it goes beyond merely saying they're no longer catholic. The bishop also says the school cannot celebrate mass, sacraments, sacramentals, be listed in the diocesan director, or fundraise with diocesan institutions. The school was also warned about it over a year ago, they were given an official order, they refused, and he acted. His previous warnings to the school were that they were also flying BLM flags. So it's not like they weren't warned and given the option to tone it down. They went woke, now they'll go broke since you can almost guarantee catholic parents will be removing their children from the school now.

His statement over the BLM incident is...

while the church stands unequivocally behind the phrase 'black lives matter' and strongly affirms that all lives matter," the BLM movement "co-opted the phrase and promotes a platform that directly contradicts Catholic social teaching on the importance and role of the nuclear family and seeks to disrupt the family structure in clear opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

@eoten: The Pope is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. Period. Bishops do NOT have authority over the Pope. You always talk about subjects of which you have no knowledge. It's laughable.

Yeah he's clueless. The Catholic Church does not operate how he thinks. He should just be quiet and stop embarrassing himself and take the L.

They should just hang a pro-child molestation flag and the church will welcome them back.

It's not an argument, it's a fact. He holds rank in this situation, he can pretty much do whatever the heck he wants within the law. And do you see any archbishops or cardinals stepping in?

The pope isn't exactly a school in Massachusetts, now is he?

By this logic, unless the flag that represents a specific identity group is raised, then that group is NOT welcome at the school. Which would be ridiculous.

I haven't seen any schools in the west, Catholic or otherwise, fly an Irish, Scottish, or Swedish flag. Nor do they fly a flag representing my exact sexuality. Yet I somehow don't feel I'm unwelcome. It's almost as though my race and/or sexuality is but a tiny part of my identity, rather than my entire identity.

And there are all kinds of things the Catholic Church believes is a sin, as is their right. So while the Church may not kick out say... an adulterer, they also shouldn't be going back on their principles and giving adultery the stamp of approval, or signaling that it is acceptable. This all goes back to hating the sin, and not the sinner.