Primarily targeting Catholic educators, "Aroha and Diversity in Catholic Schools" is the opposite of so many policies which have harmed students and upset school communities in recent years, Shine comments.

The document clearly shows the bishops' core concern is young people's safety and well-being, not with defending church teaching, he says.

He sees the guideline as exciting "as it provides Catholics worldwide with an opportunity to grow in understanding and to improve pastoral practice."

First, most importantly, the bishops address LGBTQ+ issues primarily through the lens of social justice, Shine says.

"The text stresses repeatedly values like respecting human dignity, advancing solidarity, and promoting the common good.

"At the document's heart is the clear statement, 'How we as a Church treat those members of the LGBTQIA+ community should reflect Catholic social teaching.'"

Shine notes the bishops recognise this commitment to social justice is central for young people.

"Such a social justice-focused approach is different from nearly every other diocesan or national gender policy, which sadly focus instead on upholding orthodoxy and imposing LGBTQ-negative prohibitions."

Second, and linked to the first point, there is a repeated emphasis on the need to end discrimination and curtail bullying, Shine notes.

He says he likes the guideline's practical advice, which includes general principles like:

• "Ensure that school is a safe place - many young people may not feel accepted anywhere else ... school may be their only ... sanctuary."
• "Acceptance of others sets a very ‘low bar' - Catholic schools need to be centres of welcome from all the community. . ."
• "Ensure ... procedures and guidelines on how homophobia, sexism, racism, and other forms of violence are unacceptable and how they are to be addressed ...".

The third point is the role an informed conscience has in handling personal, complex issues like gender and sexuality.

"Catholic schools are called to help form the consciences of the young people in their care, while recognising that parents, caregivers and whanau have a role to play in this area. . ."

Practical suggestions include encouraging staff to educate themselves about LGBTQIA+ people, to develop relevant resources and revise gender-related dress codes. It also provides practical guidelines for young people themselves.

The final section - "Tools for Decision Making" - includes questions on how to hold events or promote resources.

On the minus side, Shine says the document reiterates... a conservative interpretation of church teaching!

"Yet, the document does so in a way that is far more limited than other policy documents on this subject."

Catholic education worldwide can now study the guidelines, he says. By being so focused on localised decision-making, the bishops end up offering universal principles and tools for reflection.

New Ways Ministry has locked horns with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the US bishops for its dissent from Catholic teaching on homosexuality.

Pope Francis, however, has praised its founder in a handwritten letter.

Source

• New Ways Ministry

New Zealand's Catholic bishops, who released the guidelines, say all young people in Catholic schools are to be welcomed, supported and encouraged. This is important as they navigate their journey from childhood to adult and discover more about who they are, the guidelines say.

"Vulnerable rangatahi" are specifically mentioned as requiring support.

Called "Aroha and Diversity in Catholic Schools" the National Centre for Religious Studies drafted the guidelines. The draft followed a "comprehensive dialogue" between the bishops, principals, national and diocesan Catholic education leaders, as well as young people.

Bishop of Auckland Stephen Lowe says the bishops are well aware of the need to support school leadership and rangatahi in navigating the complex reality of sexual diversity.

"Young people today do not live in a bubble. They are aware and inform themselves of the range of social, scientific, ideological and religious stances regarding this issue, and there is a lot of pressure and rhetoric about this issue.

"This challenges and can pressurise young people, their whanau, and schools and wider communities," says Lowe.

The diversity guidelines clearly articulate the rich teaching of the Catholic Church, he explains.

They also provide practical information and tools to help schools make informed decisions regarding the support of rangatahi who are grappling with issues about sexual diversity in the complexities of our modern world.

"All of us are made in the image of God, and all are called into an authentic relationship with God, ourselves, each other and our world," he says.

"Such relationships are never static, and our young people must navigate their own challenging and sacred journey from childhood to adulthood.

"Our identities as adults take time to form, and vulnerable young people should not feel pushed or coerced to make decisions about themselves too soon.

"In the midst of their journey, the rangatahi in our schools deserve to be welcomed with aroha and manaakitanga, and encouraged to discover the beauty and wonder of themselves in a way that reflects Jesus' words and actions of love, compassion and challenge."

Source

• NZ Catholic Bishops Conference
• The Aroha and Diversity in Catholic Schools document

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The proposal seeks to ban any discussion of gender diversity in the state's classrooms.

The state's main Catholic education body supports One Nation leader Mark Latham's the bill.

The large Parramatta diocese, however, is lodging a strong objection.

Latham's bill proposes to prohibit the promotion of gender fluidity in schools, including the classroom and teachers' professional development courses.

He says this is about "re-establishing the primacy of parents in shaping their children's development and sense of identity".

The Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta put forward a submission to a parliamentary inquiry into the anti-trans education bill.

The Diocese described the proposal as "counter to promoting and respecting the human dignity of all".

It is "an unacceptable incursion into the professional judgement of Catholic schools and school systems," the submission continued.

If passed, the bill would probably cause discrimination and harassment to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) students," the submission said.

It warned "prohibitions on what can be discussed within the learning process can stigmatise these matters and people whose life experiences are connected to them".

LGBTQI rights group Equality Australia says there is "nothing in this bill which merits further consideration by NSW Parliament,".

They say it denies the existence of trans and gender diverse people, allows parents to withhold important lessons about the world from their children and makes teachers fear dismissal if they acknowledge that trans people exist.

In contrast, Catholic Schools NSW, representing the state's 600 Catholic schools, 30,000 staff and 257,000 students, said parental primacy was paramount.

It supports the anti-trans education bill, with the caveat it must not prevent schools providing pastoral care to LGBTQI students.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, led by Archbishop Anthony Fisher, also supported the bill.

But the Parramatta diocese - which controls 80 schools with 43,000 students in western Sydney and the Blue Mountains - submitted that if parental "rights" clashed with the best interests of children, the latter must prevail.

"The bill not only fails in this regard but conspicuously and deliberately ignores these rights and actively detracts from them," it said.

Greg Whitby, the head of Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta, said his schools had a duty of care to their students, informed by a Catholic world view and with parents "deeply involved".

"It's not for a school or a central office or dare I say even politicians to make those decisions," he said.

"If you seek to codify those things, you are putting a personal perspective on what's right and what's wrong."

Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney doesn't think the bill denies the existence of trans and gender diverse people.

"[It] is more focused on learning and curriculum and less on the culture wars or individuals. It is around what belongs in scholarship and school instruction and what doesn't.

"Our support for the bill is contingent upon our schools being able to extend all support - pastoral, physical, counselling - [to] these kids in our schools."

Source

• Brisbane Times
• Image: Star Observer

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It is the "stuff of nightmares" Waitakiri Primary School teacher Helen Houghton told the committee.

"I believe our professional integrity comes under threat when we are required to teach ideology that many in our parent communities, as well as personally and professionally, disagree with," she said.

The petition urges the Ministry of Education to remove the learning objective for teaching gender diversity in the sexuality education guide and to remove gender diversity from the TKI website, a teaching resource.

Houghton told the select committee of a parent who contacted her recently.

She said the parent's daughter had reached out to support her cousin who came out as transgender and that they attended a support group together at school.

The parent told her: "My daughter decided to help him and went along herself a couple of times to the support group where I can only guess they somehow convinced her that she, too, was transsexual."

"I'm literally not exaggerating when I say she left the house that day female and returned with her hair shaved off, a chest-binder on, and wearing male clothes."

"Now, my daughter is this boy who believes he is meant to be a girl thanks to the guidance counsellor at school... This literally is the stuff of nightmares."

Houghton also spoke of a US woman who transitioned (from female to male) but later regretted the decision.

She has written about how she regretted becoming an "overweight, pre-diabetic nightmare of a transgender man".

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty says he's not convinced there's an issue with the current school syllabus.

He said Houghton "failed to convince" him there is an issue.

"I'm intrigued you came to the select committee to convince us there is an issue and you've used an overseas example presumably from the internet," he told her.

Despite her views on the curriculum, Houghton admitted she believes there "are people who suffer with gender dysphoria where they feel they are in the wrong body, a psychological condition not biological, which we must support".

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Justice (Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues) Jan Logie said she hopes Houghton will "learn more about the needs of trans students".

During the select committee hearing, a comparison was made between teaching religion and gender with Houghton arguing they are both ideologies.

If "transgender ideology is to be imposed on all students, then Christian theology should have equal time," she said.

Logie responded saying being transgender is "not a belief system. It's about who they are and it's about inclusion."

Source

• NewsHub
• Image: Stuff