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Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, MassachusettsLisa Bourne / LifeSiteNews

WORCESTER, Massachusetts (LifeSiteNews) — A Jesuit school in Massachusetts has been asked by the local diocesan bishop to take down Black Lives Matter (BLM) and homosexual “pride” rainbow flags displayed outside its building at the risk of losing its Catholic designation.

In an April 3 statement, Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester explained that the two flags, which have been displayed for over a year outside the Nativity School of Worcester, are not compatible with Catholic values and the teaching of the Catholic Church.

“As the Bishop of this diocese, I must teach that it is imperative that a Catholic School use imagery and symbols which are reflective of that school’s values and principles so as to be clear with young people who are being spiritually and morally formed for the future,” the bishop said.

“While our role in a school is not to convert those who are not Catholic, nor is it our role to deny our Catholic identity,” he added.

McManus first addressed the school’s support for BLM and its display of the BLM flag.

He explained that “while the Catholic Church joins with our nation in teaching that all lives are equal before God and the law and that all lives demand our respect regardless of race, gender or ethnicity, the flag with the emblem Black Lives Matter has at times been co-opted by some factions which also instill broad-brush distrust of police and those entrusted with enforcing our laws.”

“We do not teach that in our schools,” he said.

In addition to flying the BLM flag, the Nativity School of Worcester also displays its support for the neo-marxist movement on its website, which features a #BlackLivesMatter Resources link.

Until April 2020, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation had a section of on its website calling for a disruption of “the Western-prescribed nuclear family.”“We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable,” the BLM website previously said.

“We foster a queer-affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise),” the BLM website had continued.

READ: Did you know Black Lives Matter supports abortion, homosexuality, anti-family agenda?

After addressing the school’s support of BLM, the bishop recalled that the teaching of the Catholic Church on marriage is also incompatible with the display of a rainbow “pride” flag, writing that “while [the Church] teach[es] that everyone is created in the image and likeness of God, gay pride flags are often used to stand in contrast to consistent Catholic teaching that sacramental marriage is between a man and a woman.”

McManus went on to question whether the school was still worthy of its Catholic designation for supporting the two groups.

“Is the school committing itself to ideologies which are contrary to Catholic teaching? If so, is it still a Catholic school?” the bishop asked.

According to CNA, though the flags have been flying at the school for over a year, they were only brought to the bishop’s attention about a month ago.

Since then, McManus has been communicating with the school to have the flag removed.

But in a statement he gave Monday, Tom McKenney, the school president, defended the decision to fly the two flags, and explained that they were there to “remind our young men, their families, and Nativity Worcester staff, that all are welcome here, and that they are valued and safe in this place.”

Diocesan spokesman Ray Delisle told CNA that, should the school persist in displaying the BLM and so-called pride flags, it risks “no longer being identified as a Catholic institution.”

The Nativity School of Worcester is a privately run Jesuit school that is not part of the diocesan system; however, the Code of Canon Law clearly states that “no school, even if it is in fact Catholic, may bear the title ‘Catholic school’ except by the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority.”

LifeSiteNews reached out to McKenney to enquire whether the school intends to keep flying the flags, and to ask him to comment on Bishop McManus’ request to have them removed, but his reply provided no further details.

This is not the first time that McManus has had to intervene to safeguard Catholic teaching in his diocese.

Back in 2012, the bishop asked Anna Maria College in Paxton, Massachusetts, to come back on its decision to invite Victoria Reggie Kennedy, the widow of Sen. Ted Kennedy, to be its commencement speaker.

McManus said her positions on abortion, homosexuality, and the Obama administration’s insurance contraception mandate were incompatible with Catholic teaching.

The college said in a press release that it obeyed the bishop “with great regret.”

More recently, McManus drew swords with the Jesuit College of the Holy Cross in Worcester on two occasions: first in 2018, when he condemned the Chair of the New Testament Studies department for his blasphemous writings on Christ, and again in 2019 when two of the college senior administrators criticized the bishop for comments he made against transgenderism at a healthcare conference sponsored by the school.

“If certain members of the Holy Cross community find this to be hurtful and offensive, then perhaps the college should present clearly what Catholicism teaches regarding Christian anthropology and human sexuality,” he said.

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