A Jesuit school for underprivileged boys in Worcester, Massachusetts, can no longer call itself Catholic after flying Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, according to the local bishop.
“The flying of these flags in front of a Catholic school sends a mixed, confusing, and scandalous message to the public about the church’s stance on these important moral and social issues,” Bishop Robert J. McManus said in a decree banning the Nativity School from calling itself Catholic.
McManus, who is a traditionalist who has been both arrested for drunk driving and accused of covering up allegations of clerical sex abuse, went on to say that the flying flags that support these movements are “inconsistent with Catholic teaching” despite Pope Francis showing a willingness to open the door to gay Catholics.
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On Tuesday, Francis, a Jesuit, underscored his wish to have a more inclusive church, and said that traditional Catholics—particularly in the U.S.—were “gagging” the church’s attempts to modernize. “The number of groups of ‘restorers’—for example, in the United States there are many—is significant,” Francis told the editors of the Jesuit journal La Civilta Cattolica. “Restorationism has come to gag the council.”
McManus first objected to the Pride and Black Lives Matter movements in an open letter on the diocese website in early May, when he urged the Nativity school to remove the symbols, which it had displayed since January 2021. It is unclear why McManus took the action days before the Juneteenth national holiday and in the middle of Pride Month.
“These symbols which embody specific agendas or ideologies contradict Catholic social and moral teaching,” he wrote. “Gay pride flags not only represent support for gay marriage, but also promote actively living an LGBTQ+ lifestyle. Others in society may say that is fine. Such people may be doing wonderful humanitarian work. But an institution that calls itself Catholic cannot condone that behavior, even though the Catholic Church will “go to the mat” in teaching we must love those with whom we disagree.”
The bishop also strongly opposes the Black Lives Matter movement, which he says is against the traditional family. “The BLM movement also contradicts Catholic social teaching on the role of the family,” he wrote. “The BLM movement in its own words is ‘committed to disrupting the Western prescribed nuclear family structure requirement,’ which is another clear example of an ideological principle that conflicts with Catholic teaching.”
McManus had earlier criticized BLM by saying the movement had been “co-opted by factions which also instill broad-brush distrust of police and those entrusted with enforcing our laws.” In his May statement, he instead said the BLM movement is “queer affirming” and “trans affirming.”
The school’s website states 46 percent of its student body is Black, 33 percent is Hispanic or Latino, and 2 percent is white.
The Nativity School now cannot celebrate Mass or sacraments, and it will be removed from the Diocesan Directory and be banned from fundraising with Catholic institutions, which have been crucial to the school’s service for underprivileged boys. “While we all share in wanting all our students, in particular our black and brown-inner-city students, to feel safe and welcome, we must abide by the moral axiom that ‘the ends do not justify the means,’” McManus wrote in the formal decree issued June 16.
Nativity President Thomas McKenney condemned McManus’ action, which he said he is appealing, and vowed he would not change how the school was run, including calling it a Jesuit school. He said the school would also continue to fly both flags “to give visible witness to the school’s solidarity with our students, families, and their communities.”
McKenny added that the school is independently funded and does not receive money directly from the diocese. “As a multicultural school, the flags represent the inclusion and respect of all people,” he said in a statement. “These flags simply state that all are welcome at Nativity and this value of inclusion is rooted in Catholic teaching. Commitment to our mission, grounded and animated by Gospel values, Catholic Social Teaching, and our Jesuit heritage compels us to do so.”
