Attitudes to homosexuality in our local Roman Catholic Secondary School – an open letter

1 Reply
My Original letter:29/04/12
Dear Rev Dr Mangan,I have a few simple questions for you regarding things that must have caught your attention at some point in recent weeks.
Simple Yes or No answers will be fine, as I appreciate that you are a busy man, but I would welcome more detailed responses if you can spare the time.

  1. The Catholic Education Service, which I understand acts for Catholic bishops in England and Wales, is reported to have contacted 385 Catholic secondary schools to highlight a letter read in parish churches last month, entitled A letter on Marriage. Was your school one of these 385 contacted by the CES regarding this letter?
  2. If YES, has this letter been highlighted with pupils, as requested by the CES.
  3. The CES also asked schools to draw pupils attention to the petition being organised by the Coalition for Marriage, a Christian campaign which has attracted more than 466,000 signatures to date. Has this petition been drawn to the attention of any pupils in your school?
  4. Have you sanctioned, or is there any possibility of you sanctioning, the promotion of this petition with any pupils in your school?
  5. To the best of your knowledge, are there any copies of the pamphlet entitled “Pure Manhood: How to become the man God wants you to be” in your school?
  6. Have you sanctioned, or is there any possibility of you sanctioning, the use of this pamphlet with any pupils in your school, as it has been in some parts of England?
  7. Finally, just a number rather than a yes/no, what percentage of your current roll is deemed to belong to the Roman Catholic Church?

Many thanks in anticipation of your response,

Yours sincerely,

Andy Chyba

THE RESPONSE:

I have received a response from the Headteacher – Rev Dr Mangan.
It has a confidentiality clause on it that makes me hesitate about copying it in full, but you should know it was written after Dr Mangan consulted with Chair of Governors, Fr W Isaac.
It is short and to the point. It does not remotely address any of the seven questions I put to him, but simply states that the treatment of the issue of marriage that has taken place within the school has been fully in keeping with the teachings of the Catholic Church and with which he feels they have a moral and legal duty to promulgate.
My response to this was:

Dear Dr Mangan

My sincere apologies – your original email was caught by my junk filter and I failed to spot it.Thank you for your response. You have chosen not to answer any of my questions. That is your prerogative.

As for your moral and legal duties, the former is a little rich from a representative of the Catholic Church and the latter may well be examined by the legal system quite soon.

Thank you for the invitation to meet with you and the Chair of Governors. I will give this careful consideration and get back to you.

Rev Dr Mangan and Fr Isaac either do not know the answers to my questions or have chosen not to answer them. Either way, I am sure I am not alone at finding this highly unsatisafactory at best – and worrying and disgraceful at worst.
I would urge all that share a genuine concern for moral and legal duties, to pursue this matter directly with Messrs Mangan and Isaac and their elected representatives.
Andy Chyba

1 thought on “Attitudes to homosexuality in our local Roman Catholic Secondary School – an open letter”

  1. Alan Rogers

    Andy, A very interesting challenge to Rev Dr Mangan. On the matter of the pamphet on manhood.. the breath-taking arrogance of the Catholic Church in claiming to know “what God wants” is astounding.

    Like

    Reply ↓

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