Catholic schools in Ontario, Canada will no longer be permitted to teach Catholic doctrine regarding homosexuality. Glenn Murray, an openly gay member of Provincial Parliament, rebuked Ontario’s Catholic bishops for refusing to launch “gay clubs” in Catholic schools.
“I have to say to the bishops: ‘You’re not allowed to do that anymore,'” said Mr. Murray, who serves as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. “I would never say to you that anything that goes on in your family with the person you love–can you imagine me describing a husband-and-wife relationship as inherently depraved?” he added.
Mr. Murray’s comments, made during a debate over Bill 13, the Accepting Schools Act, “amount to a declaration of war against the Catholic Church and all people who support traditional moral values,” said Suresh Dominic of Campaign Life Catholics. “We’ve been saying all along that McGuinty wants to dictate what the Church can teach in its schools and here it is straight from the government’s mouth.”
As part of an “anti-bullying” effort, Ontario’s New Democratic Party intends to force the Catholic Church into naming clubs in its schools “gay-straight alliances.” Catholic bishops and over 2,000 concerned parents and pro-family advocates have protested the bill and called for its defeat.
The current Minister of Education Laurel Broten has referred to Bill 13’s opponents as “homophobic.”
However, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada states that Bill 13 threatens to undermine religious and parental freedom, and the group warned Premier Dalton McGuinty, “Should your government fail to make the necessary amendments to Bill 13 to ensure its constitutionality, we share the opinion of several Canadian constitutional law lawyers that Bill 13 will be setting up the province of Ontario to likely face years of expensive, taxpayer funded litigation.”