(Everyday For Life Canada) — Six months ago, Toronto Catholic District School Board teacher Paolo De Buono gave woke and anti-Catholic marching orders to the incoming Archbishop of Toronto, Francis Leo. Surely this is a complete scandal. The fact that there has been no response from Archbishop Leo, the Director of Education Brendan Browne, nor anyone else in a supervisory capacity at the school board, only serves to make the scandal worse.
Why the silence? Is Catholic education, at the TCDSB and across the province, now defined by the teacher and progressive secular policies? Parents sending their children to Catholic schools deserve an answer.
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De Buono wishes that Leo visits his “rainbow classroom,” but only if he accepts anti-Catholic teaching about the person, human sexuality, marriage, and even a female priesthood. Here’s De Buono’s scandalous and heretical welcome message to Archbishop Leo.
Congratulations Most Reverend Frank Leo for being named as the new Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Toronto.
My name is Paolo De Buono. I am a Catholic teacher teaching in the Archdiocese of Toronto. I have been calling my classroom The Rainbow Room for the past few years because we celebrate the wonders of learning and inclusion while walking with Christ.
I would like to welcome you or any priest within the Archdiocese of Toronto to visit my classroom.
If you do, for the safety of my students from hearing harmful information and because it goes against their human rights, these are some Catholic beliefs that you or any priest are not allowed by me to talk about in my classroom. First, you cannot say that only men can become priests. This includes not quoting paragraph 1577 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In The Rainbow Room, I do not tell or I do not allow others to tell my students that there is something they cannot do or be because of their sex or gender identity.
Second, you cannot say that there are only two genders, male or female, and that a person cannot in fact be a transgender person or a non-binary person. This includes not quoting paragraph 2333 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In The Rainbow Room, I do not tell or I do not allow others to tell my students that there are only two genders. There are students whose gender identity goes beyond either male or female and beyond identifying with the gender they were told at birth.
Third, you cannot say that marriage is only for a male and a female and that sexual love is forbidden for same-sex relationships in ways that it is not forbidden for heterosexual relationships. This includes not quoting paragraphs 2357 or 2358 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In The Rainbow Room, the Ontario Health Education curriculum is taught fully without any qualifications that heterosexual sexual love is OK while same-sex sexual love is not OK.
I do respect your office and that of priests. I am Catholic. I have been Catholic for the vast majority of my life. I have attended Mass for decades and decades, including serving as a lector, choir leader, catechist, youth group leader, and in so many other ways. I believe in service to my Church and to my community, which is why I sincerely appreciate the service you do.
However, the Catholic Church is a private organization while The Rainbow Room is a classroom within a fully public school board, even though it has the word Catholic in it. I have the difficult professional choice to balance the rights of my Church with the rights of my students. Religion (or creed, as listed in the Ontario Human Rights Code) is a right, but religion is chosen.
My students do not choose their sex, sexual orientation or gender identity. Therefore, I will not allow myself or others, whether it is in a Catholic curriculum policy document or textbook, or whether it is said by the Archbishop himself, to tell my students that there is anything wrong with them because of their sex, sexual orientation and/or gender identity, especially while they are learning to understand what those terms mean and using that understanding to identify with who they are if they have not already.
I hope you understand. While I am a Catholic teacher, in a public setting I am a public officer in Ontario, a member of the Ontario College of Teachers. I must always as a professional teacher in a public setting, when there is a conflict between the rights of my Church and the rights of my students, choose my students’ rights first.
Congratulations, again, Most Reverend Frank Leo on your appointment as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Toronto. Please consider visiting my classroom, The Rainbow Room, but, again, only if you accept the limits that I have shared here.
Reprinted with permission from Everyday For Life Canada.
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