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Not exactly. This is Canada, where the state, backed by anti-Catholic bigotry, effectively seized all Catholic schools in the 1960s.

So you have a governing crisis come to a head: the donors who built the school and the trustees who represent them wish it were a Catholic school. The school board, which operates under a charter by the Province, is trying to comply with provincial law which essentially outlaws expressions of the Catholic faith with respect to homosexuals.

The prohibitions against harassment should be a no-brainer. Of course, it’s not legal to harass anyone. The sticking point is that the school board is trying to echo the Province’s prohibition on “homophobia,” without defining it.

I’ve seen many Catholic schools infected by either sloth and apathy, or political correctness/secularism.

If I were a Bishop, I would close every Catholic school in my diocese. I would then have each tell me WHY they should remain open. I imagine quite a few would find they were simply running on fumes and through force of habit.

Catholic education needs to shrink and prune its dead branches before it can grow again. They need to become BOTH excellent centers of academic learning as well as clear transmitters of real Catholic doctrine.

The sad thing is that the state’s powers stem from systematic abuse and discrimination of Catholics by Protestants who felt such discrimination was The Lord’s Work. In the 1960s, the Liberals offered a Faustian bargain with Quebec: full legal rights and recognition of the French language in exchange for state control and funding of institutions which had been controlled by the Church, such as hospitals and schools.

In hindsight, it’s easy to look back at the deal as selling their religion for money. At the time, it didn’t seem like a trade-off. The liberals were presenting it as, “We think you’ve been horribly treated! We’ll pay for your health care, your education! We’ll make sure your use of the French language is no obstacle to government contracting or employment in finance, transportation, etc!”

By 1982, the Catholics realized they had been betrayed, leading to the formation of Bloc Quebecois in opposition to the Liberals. And give them credit; this was still long before abortion, gay privileges, etc.