[LINK] "Catholic schools’ opposition to gay clubs revives public-funding debate"

[rfmcdonald]

National Post's Charles Lewis notes that the gay-straight alliance controversy may yet cost the Roman Catholic school system in Ontario public funding.

The note from John Tory, who as leader of the Progressive Conservatives lost the 2007 general election because of his suggestion to extend funding to schools belonging to other religions and denominations, strikes me as politically noteworthy.

The Ontario government’s decision forcing Catholic schools to host anti-bullying groups called “gay-straight alliances” has brought to the fore a deep divide between Roman Catholic teaching and secular society, even calling into question whether public funding for Catholic schools should continue.

At the root of the issue is a polarizing debate about whether public money should be used to support a religious education system that says homosexuals deserve love and respect but that gay sex is a mortal sin.

“The question as to whether Catholic schools should be required to support gay-straight alliances has been satisfactorily answered,” Justin Trottier, spokesman for the Toronto-based Centre for Inquiry, an atheist group, said. “The real question now is whether Ontario should be required to continue to support Catholic schools. The elephant in the room — public funding of Catholic schools — has become so destructive to fundamental rights and equality it’s impossible to ignore.”

For the Catholic Church and its supporters, it is now about the right to teach their own morality in a constitutionally protected school system without infringement from the government.

“It looks like they’re bullying the Catholic Church right now and the Catholic education system,” said Lisa MacLeod, the Conservative education critic, who is not a Catholic. “They have done this broad provocation against the Catholic Church … and really shifted focus away from bullying to a very divisive clause.”

John Tory, a Toronto broadcaster and community leader, advocated for public funding of denominational schools — not just Catholic schools — when he was Conservative leader in the 2007 provincial election. The idea of giving all religious groups public money, he said, was a way of ensuring all faith-based schools would be required to buy into Canadian values.

Mr. Tory said the church’s stand could turn public opinion against funding of its schools.

“I don’t understand how an institution can take this stand in the year 2012,” he said.

“The values of the Catholic Church do not match public policy. But if they take public money they can’t have it both ways. By looking like they’re not fully embracing acceptance [of gays] the Catholic hierarchy is starting to push public opinion against funding their schools.”

In January, Forum Research Inc. found that 49% of Ontario adults did not want public funding of Catholic schools while 45% supported it. Earlier this month it found 53% opposed pubic funding with only 40% in support.

The poll did not look for a causal link between the debate on GSAs and support for public funding. But Forum Research did say in January that 50% of Ontarians approved of GSAs in Catholic schools while 32% were opposed. In May, 51% said Catholic schools should have GSAs and 28% disagreed.

One passage from the article merits sharing.

Cardinal Thomas Collins, the head of the Archdiocese of Toronto and the leader of the provincial bishops, called the move “micromanagement” and said he was troubled that the province seemed to think there was a problem with Catholic teaching on morality. GSAs, he said, come with an agenda that would not fit with Catholic teaching.

He would not speculate about potential court challenges after the bill is passed, something expected to happen next week.

On Monday, Cardinal Collins was asked how he would defend Church teachings on homophobia. He said that it was too complicated an issue to discuss for a news story.

Too complicated? Or too revealing?