Bishops warn of intolerance after government advisor criticises Catholic schools
from Catholic Herald:
Two English bishops have responded after a government advisor criticised Catholic schools.
Two days ago, Dame Louise Casey, a senior government adviser on integration, told a Commons select committee: “It is not OK for Catholic schools to be homophobic and anti-gay marriage.” She added: “I have a problem with the expression of religious conservatism because I think often it can be anti-equalities.”
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth told the Catholic News Service (CNS) that any restrictions on Catholic schools passing on the Church’s moral teachings would be worthy of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. The bishop said it was increasingly difficult to engage in reasonable discussion and argument over anything to do with sexuality.
Trying to preach sexual morality in Britain has become “like arguing with an alcoholic”, he said. “After a while, they won’t argue with you on grounds of reason, they just become furious and respond that way. There is something in our culture increasingly like that.”
Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury told CNS that Britain’s Christian heritage shaped the country’s values. “These values would be undermined if an ‘equalities agenda’ in schools became the vehicle for an increasing intolerance of Christian teaching,” Bishop Davies said.
He added: “Strangely, it is the historic teachings of Christianity and the Christian vision of marriage which might be in need of toleration.”
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