On behalf of supporters of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board PAFE congratulates Colleen Stewart who eloquently made the case on Tuesday May 7, 2024 that the Pride flag should not be flown at Catholic schools in the board!

PAFE also extends its warm gratitude to all the supporters who came and filled the gallery to capacity! As Colleen said, “they just kept coming!”

I thought Colleen’s speech was so well done that I wanted to provide it to supporters across the country. You can read it by clicking here.

Colleen argued persuasively that the board is in violation of its flag protocol which says that flags espousing political causes shall not be raised on school property.

Delegates to another board, the Durham Catholic board, made a similar argument the prior night in which they argued on the same topic that more and more political jurisdictions are rejecting flying the flag in Canada out of the “duty of neutrality.” Why should school boards not follow suit?

She said that In November of 2023, the board Chair spoke of the need for conviction and urgency in upholding Catholic identity within schools. “Our Chair said we would need courage to be different within a culture that pressures us towards sameness. We agree. That difference is our strength…”

Tragically flying the flag is undercutting the Catholic identity of the schools. “Instead of conviction, urgency, and courage, we see signs of our Catholic identity waning,” she said, “and the courage that our Chair said would be needed to defend it wavering. We fear our evangelization is losing clarity and, as a result, our Catholic schools are losing strength.”

At Pride marches across the country, lewd behavior takes place that is hardly behavior we want children emulating.  As Colleen said, “We have pictures that are such shocking illustrations of these trends, they would be deemed inappropriate to show to an adult audience… How can we decorate our hallways with Pride flags and then one week before the Winter Formal, warn students to refrain from inappropriate dress and displays of public affection?”

Even if you want to dismiss the extreme behavior of some Pride activists as not representative of the group as a whole, Colleen pointed out numerous ways in which the philosophy of Pride sends a moral message that is opposed to Catholic teachings. For example, “According to the Pride movement, satisfying an individual’s unique and changing desires, whims, and wishes is paramount. Pride removes meaning and replaces it with individual authenticity. Pride’s message is whatever you want to do, whenever you want to do it, you are entitled to do.”

The philosophy not only does not align with Catholic teaching on self-sacrificial love, it causes internal divisions within schools.

She asked the question on every parent’s mind, “When our students graduate, they will face society’s pressures alone. What will they remember of us?

Will they remember that we stood firm, as Christ did and taught us to do, with God’s grace and courage?

Will they remember that we upheld our Catholic identity and mission, even when secular seas rose, and ideological storms raged against us?”

Colleen’s speech brought people to tears.

ACTION ITEMS:

1) If you are a supporter of the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic board, can you assist Colleen by following up before June 1 with a letter to your trustee requesting that the board take action to remove the Pride flag from Catholic schools? Contact information for trustees can be found here.

2) PAFE encourages all parents with children in board schools across Canada where the Pride flag is being flown to contact their trustees with similar arguments that are appropriate to their board. We want trustees to appreciate that this topic is painfully divisive for communities and that the only safe solution is to remain politically neutral.

Mention that the flag should not be flown because:

• It divides communities
• It violates the principle of political neutrality
• More and more communities in Canada are choosing not to fly the flag because it is divisive

For Catholic boards:

• The board has a duty to teach the faith to its students, and the flag confuses people about the church's moral teachings and its philosophy of love