“As Diocesan Bishop, it is my sacred duty and inherent responsibility to determine when a school claiming to be ‘Catholic’ is acting in such a way that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church and disregards my legitimate authority as the guardian and overseer of Catholic education in the Diocese of Worcester,” the statement continued. “The flying of these flags in front of a Catholic school sends a mixed, confusing and scandalous message to the public about the Church’s stance on these important moral and social issues,” he wrote. In the May 4 letter, Bishop McManus wrote that the Black Lives Matter movement “has co-opted the phrase and promotes a 13-principle agenda for schools … those principles include, in their own words, to be ‘queer affirming’ and ‘trans affirming.’” The Catholic Church “unequivocally stands behind the phrase ‘black lives matter,’ McManus wrote, but the Black Lives Matter movement, he said, promotes a platform that “directly contradicts Catholic social teaching on the importance and role of the nuclear family and seeks to disrupt the family structure.”
“I publicly stated in an open letter dated, May 4, 2022, that “these symbols (flags) embody specific agendas or ideologies (that) contradict Catholic social and moral teaching.” It is my contention that the “Gay Pride” flag represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle.” The official decree comes months after the bishop requested in an open letter that the flags be taken down because they conflict with Catholic teaching.
The Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester issued a formal decree removing the Nativity School’s Catholic designation after the school refused to take down the flags, which he said contradict Catholic teaching.Ī middle school in Worcester, Massachusetts was informed by the bishop of the Diocese of Worcester, Massachusetts that it has lost its Catholic designation after the school refused to stop flying Black Lives Matter and gay pride flags.īishop Robert McManus issued a formal decree to the Nativity School, informing them that the diocese would no longer support the school and that it could no longer call itself Catholic.