Catholic students urged to sign anti-gay petition
Students at a Catholic state school in south London have been shown a presentation on religious opposition to the British Government’s proposal to allow gay couples to marry in civil ceremonies, which allegedly encouraged them to sign an anti-gay marriage petition.
PinkNews.co.uk reports that a student at St Philomena’s Catholic High School for Girls in Carshalton voiced concerns to the website that pupils aged 11-18 had been “encouraged” to sign the anti-equality pledge by the school’s headmistress.
The Catholic Education Service confirmed that it had written to at least 359 Catholic state secondary schools in England and Wales last month asking them to draw attention to a letter by senior archbishops which told Catholics of their “duty” to do “all we can to ensure that the true meaning of marriage is not lost for future generations”.
“We wrote to Catholic secondary schools to let them know of the archbishops’ letter on the government’s gay marriage proposals,” Catholic Education Service Deputy Director Greg Pope said.
“We’ve asked them to draw attention generally to the Coalition for Marriage petition which is an open petition that people of all ages can sign.”
The British Home Office is currently running an online public consultation on the government proposals to introduce civil marriage equality.
Read PinkNews’ full report here.
Dave, my fight, the tax fight, for whatever reasons, will not be decided by Tony Abbott, the Queen or Catholics, but by the court.
Stuart, so there are somethings you like about Australia, and others you do not, a bit like some Catholics feelings towards their church I guess….And of course, some, like you, are fighting for change.
Dave, I want to live nude. Not belong to some nudist colony. Nor do I want less discrimination, but no discrimination. I’m staying put.
Stuart, you could also leave Australia, and go to a country that has less discrimination and a good nudist colony. Yet you stay here and fight the government.
Dave, Catholics can ex-communicate.
How is that enquiry in Victoria into sex abuse and suicide within the Catholic church going? Answer that please Oliver and co.
David, where’s Oliver? We’ve heard neither peep nor squeak from him!
Stuart, likewise, I dont support you and your public indecency.
Stuart I am not Catholic, but thanks for compliment! I would not blame Catholics for the current Popes failings anymore then I would blame you for living under the rule of the Queen. Catholics can vote Green, for Labor, and even the Liberal Party. Yes some Catholics get frustrated by the actions of some Bishops as much as me, and like the rest of the community, not all agree.
Dave, he’s your Pope, not mine.
When Cardinal Pell told Q and A, homosexuals are the broken threads on the Oriental rug of creation, people clearly took offense, including many Catholics. When school letters go home calling on homosexuals to be removed from the Earth, such as Xavier High School in Albury did, Catholics join with non-Catholics in their outrage. We are witness to a medieval quest for power by some Church leaders – it is ugly. Even my friend’s son who is 7 came home with a Catholic Newsletter, berating “homosexuals” as not understanding marriage or the Bishops. She was shocked and devastated. Bishops are now telling people who to vote for, assuming Catholics to be a zombie population. This hating by some Bishops is devastating the Church and will lead to violence.
Hannah, I’ll lump all Catholics together as long as you answer to the Pope.
Hey Stuart, I’d appreciate if you didn’t lump all us Catholics into the same group. It’s the Catholic Church dictating these things, and a lot of us Catholics have enough sense to be informed by our conscience when making decisions concerning ethics, rather than blindly following the Church. Also, Oliver, from what I can gather from this article the Catholic Education Service is completely wrong on this one. It’s morally abhorrent to encourage people under the age of 15 or 16 to sign a petition supporting a cause that they most likely do not fully understand, and as the article said, the pupils were between the ages of 11 and 18. Ever ask someone that young what political party they support? Once they give you an answer, ask them why they support that party. The answer you’ll get will most likely be ‘because my parents do’. It’s essentially the same principle with issues like this. These young people need to be given a chance to form their own opinions rather than be mobilised for someone else’s agenda at such a young age. The key issue is not what the petition was about, but rather who was being pressured to sign it.
The Catholic Church did not decide my marriage, I did. These God soldiers they are recruiting, who have not even reached puberty, are victims of a Church leadership thirsty for power. Power over the children, power over the lives of people who are not Catholic, and power over Catholics who exercise their free conscience, as Kristina Keneally has supporting Marriage Equality along with a third of Catholic Theologians in Europe. A Catholic Bishop in Australia told the senate, “The Catholic Church owns Marriage”. The fact is, their congregations are rejecting the Bishops quest for power, and this is eroding the confidence many Catholics have in the Church. The polls show over and over, the majority of Catholics support marriage equality. These same people will not respond to well to the knowledge Bishops are abusing their power over their children. My worry is, attacking the communities Civil Rights, not to be a Catholic, will result in the Church being physically attacked.
Oliver, I don’t care if you’re Christ himself. You are intolerant and none of my taxes will be going to your church.
Oliver it is the Catholic “church” that needs to show some tolerance. And we are gay and proud and dont need you lot preaching to us about your magical non-existant deity. Comprende?
Oh stuart, everyone has a hate campaign against the queer community these days dont they? Its a wonder we can leave our houses every morning. I am a roman catholic and proud no matter what any leftist groups preach to me. The gay ‘community’ could start looking for improvements within before preaching to the wider communities. Show a bit of that tolerance you keep preaching.
Oliver, get a load of this. I won’t be paying my taxes until Catholics end their hate campaign against the queer community.
Yes, bash catholics yet again when theres nothing newsworthy during the week.
Hello john ,reality check darlin’,at most only 10% OF STATE tax money comes from homosexual people.Thats 10% ,so with your logic then homosexuals should be separated from the National community and required to fund their community with ‘their’10% ,as a member of the Hetrosexual \bisexual and sensible Homosexual Alliance called modern society ,
please put your brain into gear before your fingers into action.And here we go again ,right on the button mate!
Its called UNECESSARY Sensationalism ,on the scale that rupert murdoch would be proud ,quite frankly if this is the only example of a response to the “Gay Marriage ‘Religious Rite Equality campaign by the catholic church to worry about then hey ,get ready for going down the aisles at your local Catholic churches.
oh,BTW how many actually signed it maybe NO-ONE did how would we know from the [‘unbiased ]reporting???
maybe the campaign died a death it deserved ,how would we know ?
Maybe it was a triumph of tolerance ,how would we know !
Maybe its a straw man ,that we do know!
Keep spinning here we go again. People who are anti-gay marriage generally ARE anti-gay, despite your attempts to window dress the catholic church’s bigotry!
How utterly hypocritical that Catholic leadership falsely accuses gay, lesbian, trans, and bi people of trying to recruit young people to an agenda, when it is the Catholic leadership that is using inaccurate versions of revisionist history to make false claims about the history of marriage and recruit them to promote inequality. This is shameful and profanes G!d.
The Catholic Church has oppossed all Civil Right legislation for same-sex attracted people. They do not represent the majority of Catholics, who the polls show support marriage equality. Same-sex marriage is older then the church.
Religious condemnation of homosexuality is evil and dragging schools into
the debate is abominable. It’s a case of church elders hiding behind the skirts of children.
Here we go again with Star Observer reporting! They were NOT urged to sign an anti-gay petition as your title states!!!! They were asked to sign a petition that was anti same-sex marriage. Why do you have so much trouble understanding that those who want to protect marriage are NOT necessarily anti-gay? The absurd reporting on this site does not help your cause when you twist facts and present an unbalanced viewpoint.
Well, I think it’s time that all Religious School Systems, be it Catholic, Anglican, Muslim etc, should stop taking Public Funding from Governments. That funding is paid for from the taxes, paid by Gay people and people who support Gay Marriage. I think if they want to be so rigid in their beliefs, they should really show how much it means to them by refusing those huge taxpayers dollars that they receive.
Some how I don’t think they will do that.