There has been some movement in Catholic schools to affirm the LGBTQ community by displaying pride flags and posters, and even having official school LGBTQ clubs. Public displays and official recognition of such clubs in Catholic schools are incompatible with the Church’s mission and teaching. Such recognition serves as an institutional endorsement of identities and lifestyles that contradict Catholic teaching on human sexuality, the body, and chastity.
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In 2022, Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester, Massachusetts stripped the Jesuit-run (surprised?) Nativity School of its Catholic status after it refused to remove an outdoor Pride flag. The bishop’s contention was that the Pride flag contradicts the Catholic Church’s teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that flying such flags sends a confusing and scandalous message about the Church’s stance. Catholics believe that we are all created in God’s image and that we are therefore called to treat everyone with respect and compassion. This does not, however, require affirmation of objectively disordered acts or ideologies.
The Church teaches that our sexual identity is rooted in our biological sex (“male and female he created them”), and that gender is not subject to personal redefinition. Catholic schools exist to form the whole person — mind, body, and spirit — toward union with God and the common good. Catholic schools must, therefore, present and uphold truth, not accommodate error. Students with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria are welcome in Catholic schools if they accept the schools’ religious and moral standards. However, open advocacy against those standards is incompatible with the school’s evangelical purpose. Catholic school policies must treat all students under the same faith-based norms rather than creating identity-based exceptions.
Catholics believe that authentic love seeks the true good of the other according to God’s design, not affirmation of confusion or disordered choices. In other words, Jesus’ model, “Go and sin no more,” is not affirmation of sin. Were a Catholic school to give official recognition of an LGBTQ club, or fly Pride flags, it would constitute institutional endorsement and create scandal by suggesting that the Church accepts what it teaches is disordered.
One counter-argument is that Catholics must “respect all individuals.” Yes, respect for persons is absolutely required, but that doesn’t mean the Church must endorse lifestyles it teaches are harmful or contrary to human flourishing. The moral evaluation of actions — using a conscience formed by Scripture and Tradition — is necessary, even while the final judgment of souls belongs to God alone.
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Another argument quotes Pope Francis, who in 2013 said, “Who am I to judge?” Francis’s remark came in response to a specific pastoral situation involving someone sincerely seeking God. His statement wasn’t meant as a blanket suspension of moral teaching, nor does it obligate Catholic institutions to formally recognize groups that contradict doctrine. Our conscience must still judge acts as good or evil according to Scripture, tradition, and natural law.
The mission of schools is to form students in truth, which includes biological reality. Kindness and sympathy for confused students are compatible with refusing to condone or assist disordered choices. When Catholics, including those in school communities, condone or support politicians or policies advancing issues such as abortion, sodomy, and gender ideology — described as remote participation in grave and intrinsic moral evils — they undermine the Church’s non-negotiable teachings and obscure the clarity of Catholic education.
Catholic schools cannot selectively set aside teaching on sexuality while at the same time claiming fidelity to the Church. Formal affirmation of LGBTQ clubs is incompatible with the approach of forming students in the truth about the human person. Catholic institutions must preserve their integrity by declining official recognition of such clubs and continue pastoral education rooted in truth and clarity, while distinguishing individuals from acts.
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