HANOVER, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Catholics in Ontario formed an action group to defend the faith in Bruce-Grey Catholic Schools after board trustees voted in favor of flying the gay “pride” flag and teaching a Critical Race Theory-style curriculum.
“In March 2022, Bruce Grey Catholic District Board passed an ‘Equity Action Plan’ which promotes gender ideology and Critical Race Theory, and orders the Pride Flag to be flown at ALL Catholic schools in June 2022. All of this runs contrary to Catholic moral teaching,” the newly formed Take Back Catholic Education group states on its website.
“Our Catholic schools are becoming centres of indoctrination,” the group laments. “We have to stop it.”
The group’s website features a petition Catholics and concerned parents can sign to urge the trustees to ensure the board “retain its Catholic identity and faithfulness to Christ’s teachings, and as such, ban the flying and/or display of the PRIDE Flag — or any other political flag — inside or outside any Catholic school, or the Catholic Education Centre in BGCDSB.”
One of the “Core Team members” of Take Back Catholic Ed told LifeSiteNews that “although the Catholic school system has accomplished many good works, it now aligns itself too closely with cultural, social and government movements that undermine the teachings of the Church and the authority of the family.”
“Our goal is to take back Catholic education from the influences that are diminishing our Catholic values, thwarting Divine truth, and darkening the future of our children,” continued the core member, adding that all but one trustee, Robyn Garvey, voted in favor of the policies.
The member also explained that before launching the group, they had privately “offered fraternal correction” and will “continue” to do so, but action needed to be taken as their pleas for upholding the faith have been consistently ignored.
While the board’s decision to fly the rainbow flag was done in the name of so-called inclusion and “equity,” the flag itself symbolizes support for lifestyles in direct contradiction to perennial Catholic teaching that one must hold to remain in union with the Catholic Church.
Fr. Wojciech Kuzma, a local pastor of St. Mary of the Assumption in Owen Sound, voiced his opposition to the board’s new directive, reminding the board in a recent parish bulletin that the pride flag promotes “ideals that are in direct opposition to the Catholic Church’s teachings,” and he cannot “in good conscience” support the move.
Other pro-family Catholic groups have also voiced their opposition to the measures, urging local Catholics to be cognizant of what is occurring in their local schools and to take action.
“With this aggressively anti-Christian ideology flooding our separate schools, it’s hard to justify continuing to call them ‘Catholic,’” Jack Fonseca, political operations director of Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews via email.
“Aside from the superficial religious label, this heretical board has essentially voted to wage war against Catholicism, and is making itself indistinguishable from the already anti-Christian public school system,” Fonseca added.
While the infiltration of the LGBT agenda is nothing new, the implementation of Critical Race Theory has become a particularly prominent issue in the Catholic school system in recent times.
Speaking on CRT, Fonseca explained to LifeSiteNews that the school of thought “is a modern-day version of the class warfare strategy developed by Karl Marx, the father of communism — an ideology responsible for the mass murder of up to 186 million people throughout history.”
“In the original outbreak of Marxism, the socialists or communists seized control of society by exploiting existing tensions between rich & poor to divide and create conflict in society, painting one side as oppressed (the poor) and the other as oppressor (the rich), and then calling for violent revolution to overthrow the oppressor, with the Marxists supposedly bringing liberation, but ultimately becoming brutal, absolute dictators once in power,” Fonseca explained.
“Likewise, in modern day Critical Race Theory, existing or even invented racial tensions are exploited to paint one race as oppressor … and others as oppressed … and to call for various forms of discrimination, degradation and vilification against the oppressor class, in the name of ‘social justice’ or ‘anti-racism,’” he added.
Fonseca mentioned how this type of “class warfare,” which classifies “descendants of white Europeans” as the “oppressor” while painting all other groups as “oppressed,” is “irrefutably anti-Catholic,” having been condemned by multiple popes, including modern popes Leo XIII and John Paul II.
“In the upcoming municipal elections, faithful Catholics in the Bruce-Grey Catholic Board must take back our schools from the spiritual destroyers who voted to pass this evil motion. We are encouraging Catholic rate payers and stakeholders to step forward as candidates and run against these unfaithful stewards. We especially encourage healthy, retired or semi-retired Catholics to consider running for trustee, since busy parents with children often find it overwhelming to consider taking this on, even if they have the desire,” Fonseca urged.
The Core Member of Take Back Catholic Ed told LifeSiteNews that they “encourage people to sign our petition, and learn more, at https://takebackcatholiced.ca/petition,” while emphasizing the importance of “respectful dialogue.”
“Our primary concern is for the souls of our children and the success of our families.”