An announcement allowed by Dowling Catholic has sparked controversy at the private school. Reaction to the announcement initiated a response from Dan Ryan, president of the school.
According to a member of the Dowling community, the following announcement was read:
“Hi, I’m (student’s name) from One Dowling Family, a club dedicated to celebrating the dignity of all individuals and respect for the LGBTQ community. Today, March 31st, is Trans Day of Visibility. It’s important that we acknowledge it and stand in solidarity with those who are still fighting for basic rights in the United States and all over the world. We honor this day in order to celebrate the dignity of trans people worldwide. We pray for them to receive love and acceptance within their communities and families. This day calls for us to take on the important task of maintaining an open and informative dialogue in our community and to create a safe and loving environment for all.”
According to this member of the Dowling community, the LGBTQ club member then ad-libbed some thoughts about how transgender individuals are unjustly persecuted in schools and hospitals.
Ryan said in his statement to families that members of the group One Dowling Family requested to read an announcement and prayer on Trans Visibility Day.
“This was allowed not in solidarity with this cause,” Ryan said. “But because it focused on praying for dignity and respect for individuals who may feel isolated or ostracized. The prayer also focused on providing a safe and loving environment for all which is what we strive for Dowling Catholic to be.”
Ryan said One Dowling Family has been around for “a number of years” and was created by students “seeking additional support.”
Ryan said the school recognizes these issues are “complicated.”
Was March 31st “Trans visibility day” or “The feast day of St. Benjamin” at Dowling?
Prayer is always good, but let’s try to schedule our prayers in alignment with and pay more attention to the Church Calendar of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church rather than secular “holidays” .
From online Hagiography on the Holy Martyr St. Benjamin:
Among those who suffered was St. Benjamin, a Deacon, who had been imprisoned a year for his Faith. At the end of this period, an ambassador of the Emperor of Constantinople obtained his release on condition that he would never speak to any of the courtiers about religion.
St. Benjamin, however, declared it was his duty to preach Christ and that he could not be silent. Although he had been liberated on the agreement made with the ambassador and the Persian authorities, he would not acquiesce in it, and neglected no opportunity of preaching. He was again apprehended and brought before the king. The tyrant ordered that reeds should be thrust in between his nails and his flesh and into all the tenderest parts of his body and then withdrawn. After this torture had been repeated several times, a knotted stake was inserted into his bowels to rend and tear him. The martyr expired in the most terrible agony about the year 424.
Considering St. Benjamin was killed by a knotted stake being agonizingly thrust into his bowels as punishment for preaching the Gospel, it seems rather inappropriate to use his feast day to celebrate the dignity of unrepentant sodomites.
Let’s try not to get drunk on the blood of martyrs in our Catholic schools.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Romans 1