An American Catholic Bishop has been caught up in a row with a middle school over flying flags championing the Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Gay Pride movements. 

The Most Reverend Robert McManus – Bishop of Worcester – said BLM was a threat to Catholic values, as he stripped the Nativity School in Massachusetts of its Catholic status. Pointing to a widening cultural clash within the US, the Bishop ordered the school to remove the flags, after students – the majority of whom are racial minorities – requested for them to be flown. Bishop McManus said in a decree that the flags sent a “confusing and scandalous message” and sought to “disrupt the family structure”. 

He added: “It is my contention that the Gay Pride flag represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle. This is also true of Black Lives Matter.” Notably the decision came during Pride Month and ahead of ‘Juneteenth’, a national holiday to commemorate the end of slavery. The bishop stated that while “the Church certainly stands unequivocally behind the phrase “black lives matter” and strongly affirms that all lives matter,” that “the “Black Lives Matter” movement has co-opted the phrase and promotes a platform that directly contradicts Catholic social teaching on the importance and role of the nuclear family and seeks to disrupt the family structure in clear opposition to the teachings of the Catholic Church.” 

He cited canon 803, §§ 1-3, of the Code of Canon Law, to maintain that the bishop has to “maintain vigilance over Catholic Schools within his Diocese, even those operated by lay groups who seek the use of the title “Catholic” for their schools.” Bishop McManus added that “‘Instruction’ recently published by the Holy See through the Dicastery for Catholic Education, entitled “The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue,” stated that “Catholic schools are a part of the Church’s mission (par. 21) and have the great responsibility to bear witness through an education project clearly inspired by the Gospel (par. 28).” 

The school resisted demands by the Diocese of Worcester to remove the flags despite threats to remove its Catholic status. The bishop’s decree now also prohibits the Nativity School from performing Mass or sacraments, as well as from engaging in fundraising involving institutions linked to the Diocese.  The school’s president, Thomas McKenney, said the Nativity School had decided to continue flying the flags “to give visible witness to the school’s solidarity with our students, families, and their communities”. 

In a statement likely to infuriate conservative Catholics, Mr McKenney said that Pope Francis had “praised the outreach and inclusion of LGBTQ+ people”, while the US Conference of Catholic Bishops had supported the BLM movement. Indeed, the Pope once said of gay people, “who am I to judge?” Perhaps more concerning for conservative Catholics is that the Diocese’s decision has been largely criticised by parents and staff, pointing to a widening cultural clash within the Catholic community. 

There could be concerns among liberals that the bishop’s decision will start off a domino effect. Ultimately, the decision points to a widening divide among American Catholics who are interpreting their faith in different ways. Florida Governor and Catholic Ron DeSantis recently signed a ‘Don’t say gay’ bill which bans teachers in the state from giving lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity to children under the age of nine. By contrast, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi – also a Catholic of Italian descent – has been barred from receiving Communion due to her stance on abortion.

While within the EU, the divide between ‘conservatives’ and ‘liberals’ is represented by a rather neat geographic division, the patchwork of ideologies in the US (both inter- and intra- state) makes the culture wars perhaps even more contentious. Bishop McManus’ decision then highlights the coming battle for the soul not just of the US, but of American Catholics in particular.

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