Homosexuality test in Ontario Catholic school religion class

KITCHENER, Ontario, August 9, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Amidst the heavy backlash from parents over Ontario’s controversial equity and inclusive education strategy, a grade 9 religion class at a Kitchener Catholic high school was given a test this year on homosexuality requiring them to define terms such as “coming out” and “bi-sexual,” and answer true or false to complex statements such as “Homosexuality is a disease” or “The Church is against homosexual people.”

The test, which was administered by Cathy Sousa of Resurrection Catholic Secondary School, was revealed last month by the blog RightSideUp.  A copy obtained by LifeSiteNews shows Sousa marking the student wrong for saying it was true that “Gay males and lesbian females are overly sexual,” and that “Gay people are very different from straight people.”

“Quite clearly this is a poor attempt to communicate the Church’s teaching on homosexuality,” said Camilla Gunnarson of RightSideUp. “More accurately, this is a form of indoctrination whereby students come away with the belief that homosexual relationships are equal to heterosexual relationships. Have our teachers become social engineers?”

The test, which dealt solely with homosexuality, had three sections. The first required students to define various terms related to the issue such as “homophobia,” “sexual orientation,” and “gay.”  The second had them answer true or false to statements such as “Gay people are very different from straight people,” “Gay men are always hitting on young boys,” and “Homosexual people are always in unstable relationships.”  The third section asked them to write a paragraph explaining the Church’s teaching on homosexuality.

Gunnarson insisted the test is not a “one-off occurrence.”  “The reality is that there are teachers (and administrators) within every board through out this province who have their own agenda and it’s no secret that they have been undermining Catholic moral teaching for some time,” she said.

The treatment of homosexuality by Ontario’s Catholic schools has become a hot-button issue in recent months as homosexual activists have attempted to use the Catholic schools’ widespread acceptance of the government’s equity and inclusive education strategy in order to gain a foothold in the schools.  In Toronto, thousands of Catholic parents have rallied to call on the Toronto Catholic District School Board to pass amendments to their equity policy ensuring that Catholic sexual teaching is upheld in the schools.

While the Catechism of the Catholic Church insists that homosexuals “must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” it also affirms the Church’s traditional teaching that homosexual inclinations are “objectively disordered” and homosexual acts are “acts of grave depravity.”

In June, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops warned in a letter on pastoral ministry to youth with same-sex attractions that misrepresentation or silence about the Church’s teaching on the disordered nature of homosexuality can have serious consequences. “Avoidance of difficult questions or watering down the Church’s teaching is always a disservice,” the letter said.  “Such attitudes could lead young people into grave moral danger.”

LifeSiteNews spoke on July 27th with Barb Pilsner, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board’s executive administrative assistant. She said she was going to look into the issue, but LifeSiteNews did not hear back.

Contact Information:

Most Rev. Douglas Crosby, O.M.I.
Bishop of Hamilton
700 King Street West
Hamilton, ON L8P 1C7
Tel: (905) 528-7988
Fax: (905) 528-1088
E-mail: [email protected]

Roger Lawler, Director of Education
Waterloo Catholic District School Board
35 Weber St. W.—Unit A
PO Box 91116
Kitchener, ON, Canada N2G 4G2
Phone: 519-578-3660
Fax: 519-578-5291
E-mail: [email protected]

Trustee contact information can be found here.