perfidy

A California Catholic school has angered some students' parents by choosing to accept for enrollment two boys who are the adopted sons of a gay couple. The angry parents "demanded that St. John the Baptist School in Costa Mesa accept only families that pledge to abide by Catholic teachings," and vet applicants accordingly. The school's leaders point out that if that were done to the desired extent, "then children whose parents divorced, used birth control or married outside the church would also have to be banned."

The angry parents, evidently forgetting that as Catholics they don't have a whole lot of lay authority, intend to appeal their case all the way to the Pope, under the thesis that the ancient and inscrutable Vatican heirarchy operates just like an episode of "Law and Order."

These gay men, as the argument goes, are doing a horrible horrible thing in wanting to give their children a Catholic education and to raise them in the Catholic tradition. After all, what gay person would ever love God? Sez one angry parent, "the boys are being used as pawns by these men to further their agenda." Guh? While I can understand the outrage to a certain degree, since the Catholic church stands foursquare against homosexuality, I cannot quite get my head around the idea that Catholics would turn away the children of homosexuals. I thought only one sin got passed down through generations.

[wik] Edited 1/4/04 for moral and grammatical clarity.