Patricia Grell, Edmonton Catholic School Trustee, Anxious to Apologize to Constituents for Local Catholic Bishop's Letter Upholding Catholic Principles of Morality as "Offensive" and "Uninformed"

      

http://educate-yourself.org/cn/Patricia-Grell-Catholic-School-Trustee-Anxious-to-Apologize-to-Constituents-for-Local-Catholic-Bishop's-Letter-Upholding-Catholic-Principles-of-Morality-as-Offensive06feb16.shtml#top
February 6, 2016

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Patricia Grell, Edmonton Catholic School Trustee, Anxious to Apologize to Constituents for Local Catholic Bishop's Letter Upholding Catholic Principles of Morality as "Offensive" and "Uninformed" (Feb. 6, 2016)

Ontario's Radical and Perverse 2015 Sex Ed Curriculum Examined
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/Ontario's-Radical-and-Perverse-2015-Sex-Ed-Curriculum-Examined27jan15.shtml#top

Contact Information
https://grellblog.wordpress.com/contact-information/

Patricia Grell, B.Sc., M.Div.
patricia.grell@ecsd.net

Telephone:  587-879-5612, 780-423-6739

Patricia Grell (https://www.ecsd.net/BoardofTrustees/Pages/default.aspx)

 

An Apology

[Bold, underline and italics emphasis added by Ed.]

https://grellblog.wordpress.com/2016/01/16/an-apology/#comment-804

January 16, 2016

I wish to apologize to all those who were offended by the inclusion of Bishop Henry’s letter in a communique sent to all ECSD [Edmonton Catholic School District] parents on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016.  I need the public to know that I tried to discourage my fellow trustees from including his letter in a communication we were planning on sending out to our parents on Friday.  As you can see, I was unsuccessful in convincing them that it would not bode well for our district and the future of Catholic education if we allowed ourselves to participate in disseminating his uninformed views and comments which frankly, in my opinion, are not in keeping with the spirit of the Year of Mercy recently declared by Pope Francis.

Many of my constituents have expressed their dismay/anger/horror/frustration/ that ECSD sent his letter which states so many hurtful and untrue things about the LGBTQ community — including that GSAs and QSAs are “highly politicized ideological clubs which seek to cure society of ‘homophobia’ and ‘heterosexism’, and which accept the idea that all forms of consensual sexual expression are legitimate.” This is not at all what GSAs and QSAs are — they are simply safe spaces for LGBTQ students and their allies to meet and receive support.  Studies have shown that schools which have GSAs lower suicide rates for LGBTQ students and even help reduce the bullying experienced by those perceived as LGBTQ.  As I have mentioned in previous blog posts:  GSAs are clubs which offer pastoral support to a very vulnerable group of students.  We need these groups in our schools as a means of saving lives.

There were many other things said in Bishop Henry’s letter which I disagree with and as an educated Catholic, I want my constituents to know that I unequivocally disagreed that it should be sent to our parents.

[Patricia Grell]

Oppositional Responces

Fr. Stefano Penna
(right, vice president and professor at Neuman's Theological College in Edmonton)

Mx. Grell,

It is so “prophetic” of you to silence the voices of those with whom you personally do not agree – particularly when they get in the way of your own “magisterium”. So open minded of you. Do your constituents understand that you have broken away from communion with our own Archbishop? Do your constituents recognize that you are completely in cahoots with those whose intent in this new attempt to bully anyone who does not “speak the ‘new’ language” of family, sexuality, … indeed, the same kind of English that most people speak today? According to the new Government regulations for “Best Practices” there is only one English that can be acceptable: the bizarre right-speak (the Nazi term was “gleichschaltung”) of graduate students and their faculty advisors in the Department of Eugenics … er … Racial Anthropology … er … Gender Diversity.

You have said that you support all of these regulations: Let’s try one:

“School forms, websites, letters, and other communications use non-gendered and inclusive language (e.g., parents/guardians, caregivers, families, partners, “student” or “their” instead of Mr., Ms., Mrs., mother, father, him, her, etc.).”

Do your constituents realize that you support eradicating the words “mother” and “father” from Catholic Schools … er ALL schools?

How about this one?

“A student who objects to sharing a washroom or change-room with a student who is trans or gender-diverse is offered an alternative facility (this scenario also applies when a parent or other caregiver objects to shared washroom or change-room facilities on behalf of their child)”

So you are in favour of public shaming (that at least was the way you presented – erroneously of course – the little child whose mother initiated a complaint) of a little 7 year old girl who might not understand or feel comfortable with a little boy in her washroom … or of the sixteen year old boy going through the awkwardness of puberty who really doesn’t like having a girl staring at him while he changes? Who is the bully in this situation?

Do your constituents realize that you completely support the gender ideology that Pope Francis described as “ideological colonization”:

"I’ll give just one example that I saw myself. Twenty years ago, in 1995, a minister of education asked for a large loan to build schools for the poor. They gave it to her on the condition that in the schools there would be a book for the children of a certain level, no? It was a school book, a book prepared well, didactically, in which gender theory was taught. This woman needed the money but that was the condition. Clever woman, she said 'yes' and did it again and again and it went ahead like this and that’s how it was achieved. This is ideological colonization.

Why do I say ideological colonization? Because they take, they really take, they take the need of a people to seize an opportunity to enter and grow strong — with the children. But it is not new, this. The same was done by the dictatorships of the last century. They entered with their own doctrine — think of the Balilla (Mussolini’s fascist youth organization — editor’s note), think of the Hitler Youth.

They colonized the people, but they wanted to do it. But how much suffering — peoples must not lose their freedom. Each people has its own culture, its own history. Every people has its own culture.” (Jan. 19, 2015)

You know this is not about GSAs or QSAs … this is about your own insistence that the ideological voices of your little group of politicians who think they alone have a monopoly on understanding, compassion, and tolerance. Do your constituents understand that this is the kind of person that they have “representing” them?

[Fr. Stefano Penna]

***

From Rebecca

Patricia,

The guidelines put forward are absolutely opposing to our faith and Bishop Henry did a good job of reminding us of this. I’m so embarrassed to have you as a Catholic trustee as you are publicly defending things that are so contrary to the faith that you claim to believe in and have been elected to uphold.

God is love, yet still so many turned away from Christ during his day. His message was challenging, tough to hear, and often contradictory to the way people were living. Remember this and take courage.

Our children are on loan to us from God. We are the hands and feet of Christ and must lovingly guide them towards the Truth. As a parent, I know how terribly hard this is. But it is our job to bring them closer to God and lead them into his truth and goodness.

Also, I sincerely challenge you to take a deeper look at the message of Pope Francis without cherry picking the way the media often does. We might not like the truth, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Praying for you.

***

Siobhan Vipond permalink

The email showed how out of touch the author and sender are. My daughter deserves better from her school board. I am happy to hear you are standing up for what is right, thank you.

***

Morgan Duhamel permalink

God bless father. We need more priests like you to preach the faith, not to suppress it.

Related

Alberta Bishops Fight Satanic Gender Law (Feb. 6, 2016)
Calgary Bishop Fred Henry Calls Perverse Radical Sex Guideline "Totalitarianism in Alberta" (Jan. 30, 3016)
Kathleen Wynne, Ontario's Lesbian Minister of Education, Installing the LGBT Degenerant Ethos into Canada's Most Vulnerable Citizens (Sept. 29, 2015)
Kathleen Wynne rejects parents’ plea to withdraw sex-ed curriculum (Apr 29 2015)
Ontario Parents Angry with Perverse Radical Sex Education Curriculum Being Rammed Down Their Throats (April 6, 2015)
Ontario's Lesbian Premier, Kathleen Wynne, First Destroyed Her Family; Now She Wants To Destroy Yours (Feb. 28, 2015)
Open Letter to Premeir Wynne and Minister Sandals re. Sex Curriculum from Parental Rights in Education Fund (Feb. 25, 2015)

Edmmonton Catholic Schools Board of Trustees
https://www.ecsd.net/BoardofTrustees/Pages/default.aspx

 

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