The Deacon's Bench
This story generated a lot of attention earlier in the week. And the response last night was reportedly huge:
Nearly 1,000 parents gathered at Charlotte Catholic High School on Wednesday night to air complaints about a recent speech to students by a nun who made what many considered inflammatory comments about gays and lesbians, divorce and single parenthood.
So many parents lined up to speak that the meeting with high school officials, the school’s chaplain and the Diocese of Charlotte’s vicar of education lasted more than an hour longer than scheduled.
Though the gathering was closed to the media, texts and tweets from parents inside the school gym cast the meeting as often heated, with emotions running high on both sides.
Diocese spokesman David Hains acknowledged after the meeting that the Rev. Matthew Kauth, the school’s chaplain, apologized to the parents for a March 21 speech by Sister Jane Dominic Laurel that was not the one he expected her to give.
Read more details. And stay tuned. I don’t think we’ve heard the last about this. One priest wrote to me this morning to note “even the priests in charge were surprised” at the turnout.
Meantime, the nun who sparked the controversy has backed out of an appearance in Charlotte next month:
A nun whose recent comments at Charlotte Catholic High School caused an uproar among some students and parents has canceled an address she’d been scheduled to give in May at the diocese’s annual youth conference in Asheville.
David Hains, a spokesman for the 46-county Diocese of Charlotte, said the decision was made by Sister Jane Dominic Laurel’s religious order in Nashville, Tenn. “They felt like this just wasn’t a good time for the sister to speak again in the diocese,” Hains said Tuesday. Laurel could not be reached for comment.
Laurel’s speech at a March 21 assembly at Charlotte Catholic, in which she reportedly addressed homosexuality, divorce and single parenthood, led some students to launch an online petition that called her remarks “offensive and unnecessarily derogatory.”
UPDATE: The Catholic News Herald—the only media outlet reportedly allowed inside the gathering—has details:
About 900 people attended the April 2 meeting, arranged by school and diocesan leaders to hear from concerned parents and explain the purpose of the assembly. There were comments from parents who supported the school and the assembly, but most of the comments were critical.
Parents said they felt betrayed by school administrators for not being told about the March 21 all-school assembly beforehand. Other parents objected to some of the material Sister Jane had presented about homosexuality and the way she presented it.
The first parent to speak said her student came home after the March 21 assembly feeling ashamed and embarrassed.
“Where was the trust? Where was the communication?” she said, directing her comments to Father Matthew Kauth, the school’s chaplain who arranged for the assembly. “It is trust. It is respect. It is confidence. I have lost confidence. I do not trust your judgment and I do not respect (Father Kauth).” Her comments drew loud applause from many others.
Parents heard apologies and statements from Father Kauth, as well as from Father Roger Arnsparger, diocesan vicar of education, Charlotte Catholic’s Dean of Students and two assistant principals.
School leaders asked parents to engage in a respectful dialogue, and a statement was read aloud from Bishop Peter Jugis, who was unable to attend because he was presiding at a church dedication in Hayesville. Bishop Jugis prayed there would “be a friendly and respectful conversation among Catholic brothers and sisters, united in the one faith and in the love of Almighty God.”
But many parents’ emotions boiled over, with arguments even carrying over into the school’s parking lot when the meeting ended after two hours. Two observers called the meeting’s climate “disrespectful” and “hate-filled.”
“There was a lot of passion from two different viewpoints,” David Hains, diocesan director of communication and moderator for the parents meeting, said afterwards.
UPDATE II: Fr. Kauth’s full statement can be read at this link. It says, in part:
I heard Sister speak in the Fall at St Patrick’s.
While I had given so many talks on this topic in so many different ways I found her approach just different enough-a new voice and the added perspective coming from a woman. I decided to bring her here. As you recall, I wanted the boys and girls separate and thought it would be a time for families to address these topics in a more intimate setting. The result across the board? Why didn’t anyone ever tell us this? She had shown light and those bars were not the bars of a cage, but that which held up the beauty of Christ and the human person and kept the enemy, our only enemy, from damaging their beautiful souls. Those bars protect the dignity and beauty of the human person as well as hold up His beautiful image in us. It was so well received that at the request of parents and students alike I decided to have her back for the whole school. Now many of you are asking me the same question as the above but for a different reason than I had hoped: Why didn’t anyone ever tell us this? Herein lies the confusion.
I asked her to give the same talk she gave while here before. By this time I had heard it 3 times. There was nothing in it which to my mind would require notification anymore than other assembly speakers we have had this year. However, Sister asked me a few days before the talk if it was ok for her to give a different talk. I asked why and she said it would be too difficult in that venue. I encouraged her to give the talk. The kids who had been there had even asked me if she was giving the same talk since they wanted their friends to hear it. Right before she began she asked me once again, are you sure you want me to give the same talk with the discussion on same-sex attraction? I said yes. Here is where two ships passed seemingly in the sunlight but actually in the night. What I didn’t know was that Sister has a section that she sometimes inserts into her talk that focuses on the leading studies of the CMA on same sex attraction. She simply assumed that is what I meant for her to do. Now I understand her initial hesitation. I didn’t know such a section existed. In that sense I was as stunned as anyone. I was not stunned by what she said per se as I had read similar things in various medical/theological journals. What I was stunned by was its inclusion in that venue. Why? Because without a small venue, a gentle hand, parents, a calm approach, good will, and most importantly the opportunity for follow-up questions this discussion exposes and unnecessarily prods at a wound that everyone has to some degree or other. What some of the students saw and what many believe now as a result of descriptions is that there were bars without glass. The light was eclipsed and no light creates caricatures and the semblance of death.
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