School Banned From Identifying as Catholic After Flying BLM, Pride Flags
newsweek.comBlack Lives Matter (BLM) and Pride flags on its campus.Bishop Robert J. McManus of the Diocese of Worcester announced on Thursday that the Nativity School of Worcester is "prohibited" from branding itself as Catholic moving forward.This comes at a time when the majority of American Catholics support gay marriage, a percentage that has continuously increased since 2006, according to Gallup, and Catholics across the nation are speaking out about the relationship between the BLM movement and the church, according to Catholic News."As Diocesan Bishop, it is my sacred duty and inherent responsibility to determine when a school claiming to be 'Catholic' is acting in such a way that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church and disregards my legitimate authority as the guardian and overseer of Catholic education in the Diocese of Worcester," Bishop McManus said in the statement on the Diocese of Worcester website."Despite my insistence that the school administration remove these flags because of the confusion and the properly theological scandal that they do and can promote, they refuse to do so.
This leaves me no other option but to take canonical action," the bishop added.The Nativity School of Worcester, which serves boys from grades 5-8, has been in a feud with the Diocese of Worcester for a few months over flying both flags.
The school, the only tuition-free Catholic school in the Diocese of Worcester, serves boys experiencing "economic insecurity."Though the school doesn't receive any finances from the Diocese, according to Boston 25 News reported, the Catholic Bishop of Worcester knew about the flags in March of this year and asked the school to take them down or else no longer identify itself as.
