Yet Another Commencement Controversy at a Catholic School

“Commencement time” is becoming “controversy time” when it comes to LGBT issues and Catholic schools.   Already this spring, we’ve witnessed three stories where LGBT issues have caused uproars in various Catholic educational institutions in the U.S. (for links to Bondings2.0posts about these previous stories, see the end of this posting).  This fourth one seems the most frustrating, and I explain the reasons why after reviewing the details of the case.

The news this week is that the bishop of Davenport, Iowa, is not allowing a scholarship to be presented to a gay student at a Catholic high school in Clinton, Iowa, because the award comes from a foundation which supports LGBT rights.

According to an Associated Press story printed on theWashington Post website:

Keaton Fuller

Bishop Martin Amos in Davenport said the Eychaner Foundation would not be allowed to present the Matthew Shepard Scholarship to Keaton Fuller during the May 20 ceremony at Prince of Peace Catholic School in Clinton, saying the group’s support for gay rights conflicts with church doctrine.

Fuller’s response was quoted in a QuadCities Times article about the decision:

 “ ‘I have never felt as invalidated and unaccepted as I have upon hearing the news that the scholarship that I have worked so hard for not just in the application process, but also in my deportment and actions over the years, would not be recognized in the way that it should at the graduation ceremony,’ Keaton said. ‘It is difficult to understand how after I have spent 13 years at this school and worked hard during all of them, I would be made to feel that my accomplishments are less than everybody else’s. This whole ordeal has been incredibly hurtful, and I am even sadder that this will be one of my last experiences to remember my high school years by.’

“Keaton wrote that this is ‘a teachable moment for Prince of Peace, to stand up against rejecting and invalidating the accomplishments of any student.’ ”

The diocese’s statement about the bishop’s decision cited a diocesan policy about speakers at Catholic institutions:

“We cannot allow any one or any organization which promotes a position that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church to present at a diocesan institution.”

As was the case in another recent graduation controversy, the bishop’s decision was not supported by local school officials, according to the Associated Press story:

“School Board President Edward O’Neill said he was disappointed by the bishop’s decision. He said Fuller was a talented student who was accepted by his peers after coming out years ago. He said Fuller had taken his boyfriend to prom over the weekend and other school dances without controversy.

“O’Neill said board members were briefed on the scholarship last month, and they were aware a foundation representative planned to present the scholarship. No one raised an objection until the bishop got involved, he said.

“ ‘We preach tolerance and acceptance but then we turn around and we don’t practice what we preach,’ he said. ‘If the bishop says we’re not going to do it, I can voice my objection to it, but there’s not a whole lot I can do.’ ”

The QuadCity Times article offers further disagreement from O’Neill:

“O’Neill said he was ‘disappointed and confused’ by the diocese’s decision, especially because the school already had given assurance that a representative of the foundation would be allowed to present the scholarship.

“ ‘If you say you’re going to do something, you do it,’ O’Neill said. ‘I guess I don’t understand what the big deal is about somebody from the foundation coming to present the award.’

“O’Neill said it is common practice at the school for representatives of organizations awarding scholarships to make the presentations to the winning students.

“ ‘How this became a contentious situation I don’t know,’ he said.”

Indeed, the same story says that school officials encouraged and supported Fuller to apply for the scholarship:

“He learned about the scholarship program and was encouraged to apply by Prince of Peace, he said in the release. The school also issued a signed statement that a committee member would be allowed to present the award to Keaton at the ceremony if he were selected for the scholarship, the release states.”

What’s particularly frustrating about this case is that the Eychaner Foundation and the diocese do have common ground in their anti-bullying work.   The Associated Press article states:

“Eychaner issued a statement saying he was shocked that the bishop believes the foundation’s work clashes with church teachings, noting it promotes tolerance and fights bullying.”

The diocese’s statement ends:

“While the diocese supports anti-bullying programs promoted by the Eychaner Foundation, the Foundation’s advocacy for same-sex marriage is contrary to Catholic teaching.”

The frustration comes because the bishop has turned an opportunity to promote the church’s teaching against intolerance into a half-hearted attempt to make a statement about the church’s teaching on sexual ethics.  “Half-hearted” because the scholarship will still be allowed to be presented at the graduation, just not by a representative from the Eychaner Foundation.

Any subtle message about sexual ethics that the diocese was trying to make has already been drowned out by the louder message that it is sending that discrimination is not an important value to the Catholic hierarchy.

The larger issue, though, is how Catholic institutions are going to relate to other institutions in the world.  If Catholics were to follow the logic of this bishop’s decision, they would only ever associate with individuals or groups with whom they have total and complete agreement.  That is a recipe for institutional disaster.   Catholics would do well to follow the example of Jesus who was not afraid to associate with people with whom he had disagreements.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry

Previous Bondings 2.0 stories about Catholic commencement controversies:

April 30, 2012: At Catholic Colleges’ Commencements: Tutu, Yes; Kennedy, No

April 29, 2012:  “Whodunit” Surrounds Decision to Disinvite Gay Alum from Commencement

April 1, 2012:  The Ups and Downs of LGBT Issues on Catholic College Campuses

Lessons Learned from Cancelling “The Laramie Project” at a Catholic High School

One has to wonder what kind of lessons are taught to students when parents’ complaints to New Jersey Catholic high school administrators caused the cancelling of a production of The Laramie Project, a play about the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a young Wyoming gay man.

According to a news story in The Trenton Times, the decision to cancel the show, originally scheduled for Notre Dame high school in Lawrence, N.J.,

“has proved to be just as controversial as the play’s edgy and dramatic portrayal of a Wyoming town gripped in the aftermath of a hate crime.

“On one side, school administrators say parents worried that the choice for the play was inappropriate for high schoolers, too loaded in its tale of the murder of a young gay man beaten and left tied to a fence to die.

“But cast members and students at the Catholic high school said they’ve been unfairly robbed of their ability to put on a thought-provoking and powerful play, one whose message of tolerance resonates powerfully in the wake of the Tyler Clementi cyberbullying verdict and other anti-harassment efforts.

“ ‘I wanted to do a show that had meaning and purpose to it and when I found out we were doing “The Laramie Project” I got really excited because this show teaches the values I’ve been taught my last 12 years of Catholic education,’ cast member and Notre Dame senior Tessa Holtenrichs said. ‘When I was told we couldn’t do it, I felt like it was really hypocritical.’ ”

Clearly, the overwhelming lessons of the school’s action are going to be that censorship is appropriate, that homosexuality is a forbidden topic, and that concerns about sexual activity are much more important that lessons about respect and tolerance.

What makes this decision even more difficult to understand is that that school administrators had previously deliberated over whether or not to stage the play, and had made a conscious decision that it would be beneficial to do so:

“School president Barry Breen and principal Mary Ivins said in a statement the choice for the spring play was originally seen as a ‘powerful and appropriate vehicle’ to address issues of respect and tolerance. But as calls questioning the play’s content rolled in, officials worried that the controversy would become distracting, and the decision was made Tuesday to cancel the show.

“ ‘The expression of these concerns opened our eyes to the realization that different eyes will see radically different messages than the ones we intended,’ they said.

“ ‘This has led the administration to conclude that we might inadvertently be placing our school at the center of an undesired and potentially damaging controversy by moving forward with the production.’ ”

The administration’s rationale teaches the wrong lesson that public pressure, not a principled decision, should be guide one’s thought.

Not all parents were against the staging of the play.  At least one thought the play–and its ensuing controversy–had the potential for an important lesson:

“ ‘I think the people had the assumption that the play was going to do something it never would have done, to encourage students to become homosexuals instead of not killing homosexuals,’ Diane Steinberg, a parent of a Notre Dame student and an alum, said during an interview.

“She said the school missed the chance to turn any controversy into a teachable moment.”

As one student’s comments illustrate, preparing for the play was already producing beneficial lessons for students:

“ ‘My director, Ms. (Diane) Wargo, said something pretty powerful,’  [Tessa] Holtenrichs said. ‘She said Jesus didn’t die on the cross for us to have so many rules about who to love and how to love. I thought that was great.’ ”

What is even more surprising is that many Catholic high schools and colleges stage this play regularly.  In 2010, Xavier High School in Manhattan, produced this play for the second time in less than ten years, and withstood pressure to cancel it.  According to a New York Times article:

“Not only did Xavier’s president and headmaster approve the plan for ‘Laramie,’ they informed Mr. Ostrow [the drama teacher]  that he was not exactly breaking new ground. Xavier had performed ‘Laramie’ in the 2002-3 school year, standing by the production even amid some eye-rolling and grumbling among faculty members and parents and a smattering of picketing from fundamentalist Christians. “

What lessons did staging this production at Xavier teach students?  According to school administrators quoted in theNew York Times:

“ ;I’m thrilled we did it,; Jack Raslowsky, Xavier’s president, said in an interview this week. ‘It’s one of those plays that has the potential to be a springboard to discussion. If you do “The Mousetrap” or “Brigadoon,” you’re not going to be discussing issues of good and evil.’

“Such a discussion, said Mr. Raslowsky and Michael LiVigni, the headmaster, fits firmly in the Catholic theological tradition, with its emphases on social justice and human dignity.

“ ‘When I saw the play,’ Mr. LiVigni said, ‘what struck me most was the scene of Matthew’s funeral when you have picketers with the sign “God Hates You.” But why would God hate what he created? That’s what I want our boys to understand.’ ”

Now, that’s a lesson worth teaching and learning.

–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry