A student who does not disclose her pregnancy to school administration and continues to attend classes is subject to immediate dismissal. Provide reasonable accommodation to a private bathroom for use by any student who desires increased privacy. Faced with theories that consider gender identity as merely the cultural and social product of the interaction between the community and the individual, independent of personal sexual identity without any reference to the true meaning of sexuality, the Church does not tire of repeating her teaching: Everyone, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Serving LGBT Students in Catholic Schools Response: Catholic schools and colleges should be prepared to offer discreet and robust pastoral services to students who may be struggling with sexuality, but public support groups on campus are inappropriate, as they may prematurely encourage a student to ascribe to a temporary struggle or attraction to a lasting sense of personal identity. Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them:Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education (2019) 32. The principal determines attendance at school functions. They could lead peers to pigeon-hole a student into a category of errant sexuality. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. The light of such anthropology reveals how incongruous is the demand to accord marital status to unions between persons of the same sex. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/gender-dysphoria/what-is-gender-dysphoria. The Congregation for Catholic Education emphasizes that: In todays pluralistic world, the Catholic educator must consciously inspire his or her activity with the Christian concept of the person, in communion with the Magisterium of the Church.[16]. Integrity must be modeled by Catholic educational institutions as well. This ideology leads to educational programmes and legislative enactments that promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the biological difference between male and female. The complementarity of man and woman, the pinnacle of divine creation, is being questioned by the so-called gender ideology, in the name of a more free and just society. [42] Riittakerttu Kaltiala-Heino et al. Maintain names in school records according to the students biological sex. Global Disorders of Sex Development Update since 2006: Perceptions, Approach and Care, Hormone Research in Paediatrics. Natural law arguments are a good start when explaining the harmony between body and soul and the actions that lead to human flourishing. These are the scientific and theological foundations that the policies are built upon. June 30, 2023, at 4:50 p.m. Ex-Wrestling Coach at Baltimore Catholic High School Acquitted in Sex Abuse Case. Catholic St. Jane Frances School - Archdiocese of Baltimore In Catholic education, policies involving human sexuality: Chastity is the virtue of sexual self-control and is an aspect of the cardinal virtue of temperance; as a religious virtue, chastity motivates and enables us to use the gift of our sexuality in complete accordance with Gods plan. [34] The Pontifical Council for the Family, The Truth and Meaning of Human Sexuality (1996) 60. Employees and volunteers are expected to live virtuous lives guided by Gospel values and the teaching of the Church. A student of any Catholic school who insists, or whose parents insist, on open hostility toward, or defiance of, Church teaching, or who otherwise intentionally violate this policy, may be expelled from the school pursuant to this policy and the provisions of BK3404.1.3. Pope Benedict XVI, Address to the Roman Curia (December 21, 2012). The following principles and standards, deeply informed by guidance from the Church, aim to assist in this regard. This broader goal is served by explicit efforts at developing moral, theological, and academic virtues. Lead authors are Denise Donohue, Ed.D., Director of the Catholic Education Honor Roll at The Cardinal Newman Society, and Dan Guernsey, Ed.D., Senior Fellow at The Cardinal Newman Society and principal of a diocesan K-12 Catholic school. The Congregation for Catholic Education warns that our society is in an educational crisis, especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality, and that prevalent today is: an anthropology opposed to faith and to right reason bringing with it a tendency to cancel out the differences between men and women, presenting them instead as merely the product of historical and cultural conditioning.[21]. Statistics show that such disorders of sexual development (DSD) occur between 1 and 4,500 5,500 births (.02%). Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them (2019) 20. It is opposed, first of all, by the objective impossibility of making the partnership fruitful through the transmission of life according to the plan inscribed by God in the very structure of the human being. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. [25] Pontifical Council for the Family, Family, Marriage and De Facto Unions (2000) 8. The crisis of the family is a societal fact. Violation of this policy by any employee may include immediate corrective action, suspension, and possible termination of employment. This document was developed with substantial comment and contributions from education, legal, and other experts. Resource Portal. Catholic School Being man or being woman is a reality which is good and willed by God: man and woman possess an inalienable dignity which comes to them immediately from God their Creator.[18]. [22] Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) Introduction. Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them (2019) 25. While the Catholic Church does not support transgender therapies and/or surgeries that assist a person in transitioning his or her gender, the Church recognizes that appropriate medical care may be necessary in rare cases of true genetic or physical anomalies, such as hermaphroditism or intersex. We are creatures, and not omnipotent. But if there is no pre-ordained duality of man and woman in creation, then neither is the family any longer a reality established by creation. This duality is an essential aspect of what being human is all about, as ordained by God. No, what now applies is this: it was not God who created them male and femalehitherto society did this, now we decide for ourselves. It tolerates neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.[32]. [Emphasis in original and internal citation omitted.]. Her new condition takes precedence even over her role as a student. As the body reflects the soul, so ones dress reflects ones attitudes. Policy. Eligibility for single-sex curricular and extracurricular activities is based on the sexual identity of the child. The Holy Scripture reveals the wisdom of the Creators design, which has assigned as a task to man his body, his masculinity and femininity; and that in masculinity and femininity he, in a way, assigned to him as a task his humanity, the dignity of the person, and also the clear sign of the interpersonal communion in which man fulfils himself through the authentic gift of himself. Thus, human nature must be understood on the basis of the unity of body and soul, far removed from any sort of physicalism or naturalism. Prominent family sues Baltimore Catholic archdiocese for sex School In Catholic schools of the Diocese of Steubenville, all curricular and extra-curricular activity is to be rooted in, and consistent with, the principles of Catholic doctrine. [36] Synod of Bishops, Synod15 Final Relatio of the Synod of Bishops to The Holy Father, Francis, (October 2015) 58. Catholic The aforementioned Guiding Principles are practically applied in Catholic schools. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2333) also defines gender as a persons identity as male or female, harmonious with ones biological sex upon birth. Yet the contemporary way of exalting the body is deceptive. This Appendix includes examples of policies in use at the time of publication. Congregation for Catholic Education, Male and Female He Created Them (2019) 34. All school policies, procedures, resources, employee training, and assistance given to families are consistent with the Churchs teaching on the dignity of the human person, including human sexuality. Policy Standards on Human Sexuality in Catholic Education Thus the Church reaffirms her great yes to the dignity and beauty of marriage as an expression of the faithful and generous bond between man and woman, and her no to gender philosophies, because the reciprocity between male and female is an expression of the beauty of nature willed by the Creator. Yet another challenge is posed by the various forms of an ideology of gender that denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby eliminating the anthropological basis of the family. Require that the use of names and pronouns be in accordance with the persons biological sex. WebInternal operating procedures, practices, rules and guidelines of individual schools, parishes and agencies shall not contradict Archdiocesan Policy. Response: In fact, Catholic educators should be prepared to dismiss any student whose unchaste behavior is scandalous to other students and who is unlikely to be reconciled to Christ by conformity to Catholic teaching. Facilities use policies should also prohibit use for any purpose or cause that is contrary to Catholic teaching or otherwise opposes or is opposed by the Catholic Church. Student Dress Code - HCPSS According to the Christian principle, soul and body, biological sex as well and the social-cultural role of the sex (gender), can be distinguished, but not separated. See also Pope Francis, Amoris Laetitia (2016) 56. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter. It requires clarity, charity, and integrity. schools Response: Relating to students and employees truthfully and with desire for their moral growth and purity is charitable and just. Only an anthropology corresponding to the full truth of the human person can give an appropriate response to this problem with its different aspects on both the societal and ecclesial levels. Minnesota bishops issue guidelines on transgenderism in Catholic Such public expressions that are intended to communicate a sexual identity different from ones sex include, but are not limited to, utilizing pronouns of the opposite sex, changing ones name to reflect the cultural norms of the opposite sex, wearing a uniform designated for the opposite sex, and undergoing surgery to change the appearance of ones reproductive or sexual anatomy. All employees and volunteers will be addressed and referred to with pronouns in accord with their biological sex; All employee or volunteer correspondence, documents, and records will reflect the employees or volunteers biological sex; All employees and volunteers will use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex while on Diocesan or Parish property. After the birth, the students and their parents must schedule an interview with the school administration to determine the feasibility and conditions of returning to school. This type of formation is rooted in the Churchs philosophy of the human person, who is seen as a complex and multi-faceted being, striving for full human flourishing in their physical, moral, spiritual, psychological, social, and intellectual faculties. Question: We dont dismiss heterosexual students who are unchaste, so why do we seem to have a double standard for those who identify as LGBTQ? Dress code/uniform policies, in order to maintain uniform appearance, modesty, and proper comportment throughout the school day and at school events, require all students, staff, and faculty to follow the dress code expectations of theirbiological sex while on campus and while representing the institution at outside functions. Students shall conduct themselves in accord with their biological sex at all times. Francis X. Gallagher Jr.'s father founded a law firm that still represents the Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. [23] Congregation for Catholic Education (2019) 25. support and protect educational communities of evangelization that promote the salvation of students, teach and witness to truth, and serve the common good; ensure a Catholic environment in which students can develop their physical, moral, and intellectual talents harmoniously; uphold Catholic teaching according to the magisterium of the Catholic Church, especially in matters of human sexuality; are founded on a Christian anthropology which supports the unity of body and soul as part of Gods original plan for humanity and understands sexuality as a gift ordered toward the union of one man and one woman in marriage; expect all members of the Catholic educational community to strive for a life of chastity in keeping with their particular state of life, emphasizing the importance of chastity to a life of virtue and growth in ones relationship with God; provide clear institutional supports for living chastely, such as single-sex dorms and rules regarding clothing and behavior to establish standards and minimize temptation; provide instruction and reading material, such as Catholic books and pamphlets, that offer practical guidance for living chastely; ensure that all human sexuality materials and instruction are carefully vetted for complete fidelity to Church teachings, taught by qualified and committed Catholics, modest and pure, targeted to the appropriate age and developmental stage of the student with respect for a childs latency period (lasting up until puberty). [37] American Psychiatric Association. [28] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Religious Dimension of Education in a Catholic School: Guidelines for Reflection and Renewal (1988) Introduction, 63. Published 1:50 PM PDT, June 30, 2023. The differences between man and woman are not for opposition or subordination, but for communion and generation, always in the image and likeness of God. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Likewise, the child has lost the place he had occupied hitherto and the dignity pertaining to him.. Efforts to go beyond the constitutive male-female sexual difference, such as the ideas of intersex or transgender, lead to a masculinity or femininity that is ambiguous, even though (in a self-contradictory way), these concepts themselves actually presuppose the very sexual difference that they propose to negate or supersede. A student diagnosed with gender dysphoria should not be denied admission to a Catholic school as long as the student and his or her parents agree that the child will abide by the Family School Agreement and this policy. [1] Congregation for Catholic Education, The Catholic School (1977) 9. Frequently, sex education deals primarily with protection through the practice of safe sex. Such expressions convey a negative attitude towards the natural procreative fina`lity of sexuality, as if an eventual child were an enemy to be protected against. Storied Baltimore Catholic family sues archdiocese, says sexual abuse led to death. To clarify the truth about the human person and to help Catholic schools to live out this truth, the leadership of Catholic schools now has offered guidance around This is hardly mans great yes to the body. [29] Congregation for Catholic Education (1977) 36. We will teach respect for the dignity of the human person, recognizing the importance of chastity as we guide our youth in discovering their identity as children of God. Permission to reprint without modification to text, with attribution to author and to The Cardinal Newman Society, and (if published online) hyperlinked to the article on the Newman Societys website. Policies should be clear, consistent, faithful to Church teaching, and protect from anything which might impair an institutions faith-based mission and educational philosophy. ROME . Mission integrity policies ensure that the institution exercises its responsibility to teach Catholic faith and morals in all fullness and especially as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/Policy-Standards-website-sized.png, https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/wp-content/uploads/CNS-logo-2C-450-tag2.png, Copyright 2023 - The Cardinal Newman Society -. Schools communicate with parents or guardians about their childs behavior at school and inform them of any concerns relating to the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual health, safety, or welfare of their child, except when advised otherwise by law enforcement or a social service agency. The full version, which applies to all the diocesan schools, provides a section prohibiting bullying based on a students perceived sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity, in accordance with its commitment to providing a safe learning environment for all. The segments shared by Atuna, however, are also part of the policy. A proper understanding of human sexuality requires personal integrity and full integration of body and soul as created by God. Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Ex-Wrestling Coach at Baltimore Catholic High School Acquitted in For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Schools shall make a reasonable effort to inform and instruct school personnel, parents, and students (where appropriate) concerning these policies. It is hard to overstate how radical the sexual revolution has been and how far-reaching and devastating its consequences to the human community. Pope St. John Paul II, General Audience, The Virtue of PurityIs the Expression and Fruit of Life According to the Spirit (February 11, 1981) 3. All of these prepare them for an integral and generous gift of self that will be expressed, following a public commitment, in the gift of their bodies. 2022 School Policy Manual (Updated February 2022) Bullying Report Form - 2020. Catholic educators must be astutely aware of the challenges posed by the sexual culture, prepared to bravely confront it, and equipped with educational principles and policies to deal with the crisis it has created. A sexual education that fosters a healthy sense of modesty has immense value, however much some people nowadays consider modesty a relic of a bygone era. September 7, 2022 In the biggest disappointed and sickened but not surprised revelation of the whole century, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference See Lee, P.A., et al. [35], Gender was commonly used synonymously with the word sex, but over time has been changed to mean a persons socio-cultural role apart from their biological sex. The profound falsehood of this theory and of the anthropological revolution contained within it is obvious. Admissions policies help target admission to students and families who can benefit from the educative and formative approach of the Catholic education program and not hinder the institutions faith-based mission. September 8, 2022. [44] Full text can be found at https://www.dio.org/policy-book/77-650-gender-identity/file.html (accessed 5/20/20). This combination of physicalism and voluntarism gives rise to relativism, in which everything that exists is of equal value and at the same time undifferentiated, without any real order or purposeThe effect of this move is chiefly to create a cultural and ideological revolution driven by relativism. New gender identity policy at Catholic churches, schools | KHQA Guidelines The policies ensure that all human sexuality materials are carefully vetted for complete fidelity to Church teachings, taught by qualified committed Catholics, targeted to the appropriate age and developmental stage of the student, respect a childs latency period, and are available in advance to parents who choose to opt their student out of the program. Therefore, a female student who attempts to procure an abortion or a male student who enables this attempt must withdraw from the school immediately. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. Education Portland-area Catholic schools are at a crossroads over transgender, nonbinary student rights Updated: Jun. July 2, 2023 2:40 PM PT. Sexual identity policies clarify that the institution will provide pastoral care for any student working through challenges related to the integration of their sexual identity but will interact with students according to their biological sex as based upon physical differences at birth and will direct students to work with their parents, pastor, and other trained licensed professionals who might best assist them in clarifying and defining issues of self (and sexual) identity in accord with Catholic teaching and natural law. Catholic schools policies on gender affirm dignity of the person [3] Saint Paul VI, Gravissimum Educationis (1965) 8. This bodily nature includes a biological sexual reality that shares in Gods creative plan for the good. Smith, who opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds and runs a business designing websites, sued the state in 2016 because she said she would like to The Catholic Church has a deep and rich understanding of the human person informed by natural law and firmly rooted in Christian revelation, which is its privilege and duty to proclaim and which the culture desperately needs to hear. WebSt. Bishop England High School, Charleston, S.C. Pro-Life Policy: It is understood that we, as Catholic educators, are convinced of the value and dignity of human life. 06 September 2022 MEDIA RELEASE PDF Version The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has released a guide on gender and identity to support Catholic Nursing Principle 3: Catholic education should communicate and support the formation of virtue in order to help students live a new life in Christ[29] and faithfully fulfill their roles in building up the Kingdom of God. As soon as possible after learning of the pregnancy, the student(s) and their parents will meet with the Principal to inform the school of the situation.