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Tuesday 18 January 2011

Halton Trustees: One more chance to get it right!

UPDATE:

Cowards and really bad CINO's! (Catholics In Name Only)

The pro-family policy was supported by trustees Anthony Danko and Jane Michael, and it was opposed by
Paul Marai, Arlene Iantomasi, Ed Viana, John Morrison, Diane Rabenda, and John Mark Rowe. Board chair Alice Anne LeMay abstained.

Trustees
Alice Anne LeMay
(905) 632-6300
lemaya@hcdsb.org
Jane Michael
(905) 319-6582
north@cogeco.net
Arlene Lantomasi
(905) 529-6155
iantomasia@hcdsb.org
John Morrison
(905) 639-4718
john@braintanksolutions.com
Mark Rowe
(905) 877-9510
mrowe6@sympatico.ca
Ed Viana
(905) 632-6300
vianae@hcdsb.org
Diane Rabenda
(905) 632-6300
rabendad@hcdsb.org
Anthony Danko
(905) 825-9159 dankoa@hcdsb.org

Most Rev. Gerard P. Bergie, Bishop of St. Catharines
Chair, Ontario Bishops Education Commission
Catholic Centre
P.O. Box 875
St. Catharines, ON L2R 6Z4
Tel:
(905) 684-0154

Fax: (905) 684-2185
E-mail:bishop@stcatharinesdiocese.ca

Most Rev. Douglas Crosby, O.M.I., Bishop of Hamilton
700 King Street West
Hamilton, ON L8P 1C7
Tel:
(905) 528-7988

Fax: (905) 528-1088
E-mail: wdunn@hamiltondiocese.com

Most Rev. Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto
President, Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario
1155 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON M4T 1W2
Tel:
(416) 934-3400
#609
Fax: (416) 934-3452
E-mail: archbishop@archtoronto.org


T
onight, the Catholic School Trustees in Halton (Oakville, Burlington, Milton, etc) to the west of Toronto in the Diocese of Hamilton, have an opportunity to overturn last week's Committee decision to overturn the Board policy and recommend the creation of so-called "gay-straight alliances." The vote was 7-2 to recommend pushed by a 23 year old trustee* elected last October who hid his homosexual lifestyle and poltical agenda from the voters and the Board! It is the same nine trustees now on Board who will vote again.

They must resind this lunacy!

Dear Chairwoman LeMay and Trustees of the Halton Catholic District School Board;

The Bishops in Ontario have
issued the following statement:

“The debate surrounding Gay/Straight Alliances (GSAs) in Catholic high schools is being complicated by the fact that people are not distinguishing between an objective and a strategy. GSAs are a strategy that some people propose to achieve an objective with which the Bishops of Ontario are in agreement: that all students in schools feel safe and respected. Our objective is that each student be treated with dignity, for each is a child of God. It is not right or fair to suggest that one particular strategy is the only way to achieve a given goal. We seek to achieve the goal of a safe and loving environment for all students in a way that is in harmony with our faith.”

As a 13 year-old in a Toronto Catholic High School, I was bullied and not only by students! (probably for the same motivation as that which causes this blog to be--guts!) Nothing was there to prevent this bullying and nothing was done to help me deal with it.

If the issue is “bullying” then that is what you are to deal with--for all of your students, those with confused sexual identity and those without. Any and every child deserves protection. As the bishops have rightly said, you are confused!

You must not succumb to the secular media and homosexualist pressure outside the Board or by the person sitting around the Boardroom table who has an agenda, though he clearly hid it well from the electorate.

Before anything else, you are Catholics and you must act as so and that requires that even though you all sit on the Committee that voted to recommend so-called “gay-straight alliances” you must now reject them.

If you do not do this, then you have lost your right to govern and you will be held accountable in this world, and the next.

Alice Anne LeMay, Chairwoman
(905) 632-6300 lemaya@hcdsb.org
Jane Michael (905) 319-6582 north@cogeco.net
Arlene Lantomasi (905) 529-6155 iantomasia@hcdsb.org
John Morrison (905) 639-4718 john@braintanksolutions.com
Mark Rowe (905) 877-9510 mrowe6@sympatico.ca
Ed Viana (905) 632-6300 vianae@hcdsb.org
Diane Rabenda (905) 632-6300 rabendad@hcdsb.org
Anthony Danko (905) 825-9159 dankoa@hcdsb.org
Paul Marai* maraip@hcdsb.org

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I daresay I think you are mistaken. Why shouldn't the youth have "club" that encourages positive non agressive relationships between gays and straights? As long as they are not encouraging sexual relations, gay or straight, then where is the issue. These are but one tool to encourage acceptance of gays and make schools an accepting and positive place of learning. I see no where a claim that these gay straight alliances are any more than a place for both groups to meet and socialize in a safe environment, an objective that is to be encouraged. Your comments suggest or imply that somehow this is encouraging promiscuity. If this is the case, then we should abolish co-ed groups as well, and perhaps school dances as they too encourage improper physical relations. To deny the existance of gays is naive, to deny the existance gay bashing or bullying is folly, and to deny a group of gay and straight youth the opportunity to participate in a club to foster understanding and respect borders on sinful. Jesus himself made no exclusions when he told us to love our neighbours, nor even for homosexuals. In my new testament, He also does not say anything about gay straight alliances.

Greg Simmons said...

But of course, Anonymous, this is all predicated on your false assumption that being a homosexual is anything other than a lifestyle choice. As humans with a soul, we have free will, and we will to be homosexual. And so it is that this choice is not Catholic.

Vox Cantoris said...

Anonymous,

People are not "homosexuals" they are men or they are women. Homosexuality is not something we are born with; it is a behaviour. Please fee free to research the teachings of the Catholic Church on the subject, I need not describe it here more than I already have.

Mr. Simmons has answered you quite appropriately.