There was a time when the Roman Catholic church was famous for persecuting people it didn’t agree with, such as Copernicus who — foolishly in the church’s view — thought the Earth orbited the Sun..Now, it seems, the Catholic church — or at least an Ontario Catholic school — is persecuting people who stand up for Roman Catholic orthodoxy..What?. CopernicusNicholas Copernicus .Seriously?.How can that even happen?.Well, it happens when a Catholic school board goes woke..A few days ago my colleague Lee Harding broke the story in the Western Standard. Here’s the gist: Josh Alexander is a Grade 11 student at St. Joseph’s School in Renfrew, ON. He was suspended for 20 days in late 2022 because during class debates and on social media, he defended the traditional church teaching there are only two genders, that students cannot switch between genders, and that male students should not be permitted into the girls’ bathroom..I’m not a Catholic, but it seems to me this is consistent with what the Catholic church has believed and taught since Saint Peter was a fisherman..It’s also consistent with what the rest of humanity has believed for thousands of years and conducted itself accordingly. And, notwithstanding how powerful the woke voice has become in this country, it’s also what most Canadians still believe today … which is why when a Catholic kid in a small town in Ontario gets cancelled for holding fast to what he was raised in, it matters across the country. After all, if you can’t count on the Roman Catholic church for a predictably traditional take on morality and common decency, who else is left?.Not that we fault the St. Joseph’s school for being sensitive to struggling teenagers. But letting boys use the girls’ washroom? Common decency forbids..Anyway once he was suspended, he showed up for class anyway, so they called the police on him, removed him from the school and charged him with trespassing. Seriously. Too Catholic for his own good..At any level, this was a Comms disaster. But it leads us to further ask: What’s going on? How did it ever get this far?.Why don’t Canadians coast-to-coast-to-coast challenge all the daily reminders that Hans Andersen’s famous tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes is not merely a charming fable for children, but a salutary warning about cravenly accepting as fact what one can clearly recognize as error — or indeed as a purposeful lie?.Lies, such as the following..‘Men can have babies.’ This, in testimony to a US congressional committee..‘Men can menstruate. And along with replacing the word ‘mother’ with ‘birthing person,’ we are asked to refer to women as ‘people who menstruate’ as author JK Rowling recently found..We are also famously told by the International Olympic Committee for example — motto ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger' — ‘trans’ men can compete on women’s sports teams. This, notwithstanding if you’re looking for a way to bet in a physical sport, men are generally faster, higher and stronger than women..The list is illustrative, rather than exhaustive..Here’s the City of Toronto, for example — “Employees and service recipients have a right to use a washroom that corresponds to their expressed gender identity, regardless of their sex assigned at birth. Gender identity is based on self-determination only. Do not require medical documentation or any other form of “proof” to establish gender identity. Self-identification is the only criterion required to determine which washroom people use.”.And, having read my colleague Linda Slobodian’s account of small children at an all-ages drag show being given money to put in the underwear of the performers, I have to say my libertarian instinct to let people alone to do their thing, collapses. That’s just plain wrong and so is encouraging parents (and grandparents, amazingly) to take children to public libraries, where they can be read to by men dressed up as cartoons of women..Really? For whose benefit? The kids, or cross-dressing men seeking society’s validation?.Yet, now it’s more important to this Catholic school board for their kids to be on board with woke-ism than it is for board members themselves to be on board with Catholic orthodoxy..Now, young Alexander tells us he’s not a problematic kid..That’s interesting..If you have to deny you’re problematic, somebody thinks you are. And Alexander apparently did organize a student walk-out regarding the aforementioned refusal of the St. Joseph’s principal to address the concerns of a female student regarding male students accessing the girls’ washrooms..Yes, most principals would find a kid organizing a walk out, ‘problematic.’ So would a school board, because school boards tend to be a craven lot. Most just don’t want any trouble..But good for the kid. It seems despite themselves, St. Joseph’s did better than they thought, turning out a ballsy Catholic for the next generation who will stand up for the orthodoxy of his faith — not to mention free speech — freedom of thought and the right to believe what he wants to believe..In whatever celestial sphere Copernicus ended up, he's probably scratching his head over the whole thing..I should think however, that he would be proud…
There was a time when the Roman Catholic church was famous for persecuting people it didn’t agree with, such as Copernicus who — foolishly in the church’s view — thought the Earth orbited the Sun..Now, it seems, the Catholic church — or at least an Ontario Catholic school — is persecuting people who stand up for Roman Catholic orthodoxy..What?. CopernicusNicholas Copernicus .Seriously?.How can that even happen?.Well, it happens when a Catholic school board goes woke..A few days ago my colleague Lee Harding broke the story in the Western Standard. Here’s the gist: Josh Alexander is a Grade 11 student at St. Joseph’s School in Renfrew, ON. He was suspended for 20 days in late 2022 because during class debates and on social media, he defended the traditional church teaching there are only two genders, that students cannot switch between genders, and that male students should not be permitted into the girls’ bathroom..I’m not a Catholic, but it seems to me this is consistent with what the Catholic church has believed and taught since Saint Peter was a fisherman..It’s also consistent with what the rest of humanity has believed for thousands of years and conducted itself accordingly. And, notwithstanding how powerful the woke voice has become in this country, it’s also what most Canadians still believe today … which is why when a Catholic kid in a small town in Ontario gets cancelled for holding fast to what he was raised in, it matters across the country. After all, if you can’t count on the Roman Catholic church for a predictably traditional take on morality and common decency, who else is left?.Not that we fault the St. Joseph’s school for being sensitive to struggling teenagers. But letting boys use the girls’ washroom? Common decency forbids..Anyway once he was suspended, he showed up for class anyway, so they called the police on him, removed him from the school and charged him with trespassing. Seriously. Too Catholic for his own good..At any level, this was a Comms disaster. But it leads us to further ask: What’s going on? How did it ever get this far?.Why don’t Canadians coast-to-coast-to-coast challenge all the daily reminders that Hans Andersen’s famous tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes is not merely a charming fable for children, but a salutary warning about cravenly accepting as fact what one can clearly recognize as error — or indeed as a purposeful lie?.Lies, such as the following..‘Men can have babies.’ This, in testimony to a US congressional committee..‘Men can menstruate. And along with replacing the word ‘mother’ with ‘birthing person,’ we are asked to refer to women as ‘people who menstruate’ as author JK Rowling recently found..We are also famously told by the International Olympic Committee for example — motto ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger' — ‘trans’ men can compete on women’s sports teams. This, notwithstanding if you’re looking for a way to bet in a physical sport, men are generally faster, higher and stronger than women..The list is illustrative, rather than exhaustive..Here’s the City of Toronto, for example — “Employees and service recipients have a right to use a washroom that corresponds to their expressed gender identity, regardless of their sex assigned at birth. Gender identity is based on self-determination only. Do not require medical documentation or any other form of “proof” to establish gender identity. Self-identification is the only criterion required to determine which washroom people use.”.And, having read my colleague Linda Slobodian’s account of small children at an all-ages drag show being given money to put in the underwear of the performers, I have to say my libertarian instinct to let people alone to do their thing, collapses. That’s just plain wrong and so is encouraging parents (and grandparents, amazingly) to take children to public libraries, where they can be read to by men dressed up as cartoons of women..Really? For whose benefit? The kids, or cross-dressing men seeking society’s validation?.Yet, now it’s more important to this Catholic school board for their kids to be on board with woke-ism than it is for board members themselves to be on board with Catholic orthodoxy..Now, young Alexander tells us he’s not a problematic kid..That’s interesting..If you have to deny you’re problematic, somebody thinks you are. And Alexander apparently did organize a student walk-out regarding the aforementioned refusal of the St. Joseph’s principal to address the concerns of a female student regarding male students accessing the girls’ washrooms..Yes, most principals would find a kid organizing a walk out, ‘problematic.’ So would a school board, because school boards tend to be a craven lot. Most just don’t want any trouble..But good for the kid. It seems despite themselves, St. Joseph’s did better than they thought, turning out a ballsy Catholic for the next generation who will stand up for the orthodoxy of his faith — not to mention free speech — freedom of thought and the right to believe what he wants to believe..In whatever celestial sphere Copernicus ended up, he's probably scratching his head over the whole thing..I should think however, that he would be proud…
