TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) – After one of Canada’s oldest Catholic hospitals placed a “pride” flag above and behind a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a concerned local resident said it is a “disgrace” the flag is being flown outside a Catholic facility.
The issue over the “pride” flag concerns St Joseph’s Health Centre, founded in 1921 by the Sisters of St. Joseph and is part of Unity Health Toronto.
LifeSiteNews was contacted by a resident who lives nearby and asked to remain anonymous for fear of being targeted by LGBT activists, who noted that the “pride” flag was raised alongside the Canadian flag and Ontario flag.
“St Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto is once again flying a pride flag next to and over a statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,” the concerned resident said.
“This is a disgrace in my opinion.”
LifeSiteNews learned that in past year years, notably in 2021, the “pride” flags being flown at its hospitals were “taken down” after complaints were made to Unity Health.
Hospital will ‘celebrate’ June with ‘Pride’ flag despite month being dedicated to Sacred Heart of Jesus
For Catholics, the month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Meanwhile, LGBT activists in recent years has been dubbed June as “Pride Month.”
LifeSiteNews obtained pictures of the “pride” flag being flown outside the health centre last week and contacted the media department at Unity Health to ask why a Catholic-based institution was flying a “pride” flag outside one of its hospitals.
The corporate communications department responded to LifeSiteNews with a statement saying that “Unity Health Toronto is a place where everyone belongs, is welcomed and is celebrated.”
“Pride flags are raised outside of our hospital sites for the month of June,” the statement reads.
LifeSiteNews was then sent a link to a message from Unity Health president and CEO Tim Rutledge, dated May 31, about how it is “working to improve the experiences of 2SLGBTQ+ people.”
Rutledge said that because there has been a “disturbing rise in harmful anti-2SLGBTQ+ violence and discrimination,” it is “critically important that Unity Health Toronto holds fast to our commitment to create safe, inclusive and welcoming spaces for 2SLGBTQ+ staff, patients and community members.”
‘Pride’ flag a symbol of ‘sexual hedonism’
The concerned resident told LifeSiteNews that seeing the “Pride” flag over the Sacred Heart of Jesus is “offensive,” as it represents “sexual hedonism.”
“The statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus represents purity and God’s love. The pride flag represents sexual hedonism, lust, and mental illness. Seeing the pride flag near that statue is offensive,” the resident told LifeSiteNews.
While claiming to be a Catholic facility, some of Unity Health’s new LGBT-charged initiatives include building a new “electronic record system (EPR) to capture sexual orientation and gender identity information, including pronouns and chosen names.”
Also, Unity Health is developing a “policy on gender transition in the workplace, which will provide a list of supports offered by Unity Health, as well as clarify and improve the process for Unity Health staff, physicians and learners who are transitioning.”
Unity Health’s LGBT statement appears to go against traditional beliefs regarding gender and sexuality, such as there are only two genders, and that marriage is between one man and one woman, as taught by the Catholic faith.
St. Joseph’s Health Centre Toronto says it is a “Catholic community teaching hospital affiliated with the University of Toronto and accredited with exemplary standing by Accreditation Canada.”
In terms of its current links to the Catholic church in Ontario, LifeSiteNews’s own research shows that Unity Health lists as one of its ex-officio board members “Catherine Pawluch as a representative of the Archbishop of Toronto.”
LifeSiteNews contacted the Archdiocese of Toronto to ask why Unity Health is allowed to call itself a Catholic health care service while promoting an ideology that is at direct odds with Catholic teaching on sexual morality. As of publication, there has been no reply.
Despite the “pride” flag being flown at Toronto’s Catholic hospitals, there has been some successful pushback against LGBT ideology being imposed on Catholic-based institutions.
As recently reported by LifeSiteNews, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) voted 6-3 against a motion to fly non-governmental flags for various secular initiatives such as the LGBT “Pride” flag.
When it comes to “Pride” and the month of June, Canadian psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson recently slammed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government at the start of “Pride” month, saying that in his view it is really a “celebration of casual hedonistic self-centered sex” and not a “celebration of love.”
The Liberal federal government has gone all in on promoting transgenderism and gender ideology, as can be seen from their federal “2SLGBTQI+ Action Plan,” which gives $100 million in funding over five years for homosexual and transgender initiatives.
Trudeau recently went into LGBT overload after introducing a bill that not only mocks Catholic teaching on marriage and family but proposes January 7 as a yearly national “day” to raise “awareness” of so-called “conversion therapy.”
LifeSiteNews recently wrote about Peterson accusing the Trudeau government of going along with the “worst medical scandal ever” after continuing to promote transgender ideology by not banning puberty blockers for children with gender confusion.