Homophobic bullying plainly exists and is contrary to the teaching of the Church – so what could be wrong with a document on combatting it? As the Catholic Education Service (CES) discovered last week, things aren’t quite as simple as that.
Challenging homophobic and biphobic bullying in our Catholic schools, a 40-page document for dioceses, has been posted online by the blogger Mark Lambert, who called it “Stonewall propaganda with a Catholic label on it”. The anonymous blogger Countercultural Father – who, like Lambert, has a parent’s experience of the school system – called it “lamentable”. The hastag #CESScandal began doing the rounds.
