Now this is a pretty crazy story.
The Religious Education department for Bonus Pastor Catholic College in Lewisham, England apparently showed some rather sick videos promoting sex and suicide.
- Parents complain to the school and are basically ignored
- They setup a website Bonus Pastor Exposed
- Headmaster sends out letter saying your computer could get hacked if you visit the website
- Parents hand out leaflets by the school but not on the school ground
- School calls the police on them
Fr. Tim Finigan goes into some details and describes the videos.
James Preece has also posted on this story here and here. And as Father Finigan suggests the comments on both articles are worth reading.
3 comments
Slight correction- it was a headmistress involved, not a headmaster. Her complaint to the police was dismissed very quickly by them. If they had been successful, they would have obtained a criminal record for a person with a spotless character, which might have prevented him travelling to the US as director of Family Life International. The wicked arrogance of the Catholic educational establishment has to be experienced to be believed.
This is difficult to wrap my head around. I’m in the US, where public school is compulsory. If you want to send your children to a Catholic school, then you pay tuition. This material would never be shown in a public school. Parents have to sign a permission slip just to even show the basic birds&bees film about going through puberty. They even have the opportunity to review the material before signing-for public school! I’m not sure about the private Catholic schools, but I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have a similar process involving parental consent.
How old are these students? These films couldn’t even be shown at a theater without receiving an R-rating (children under 17 not admitted w/o parent or guardian).
The euthanasia film was more disturbing to me than the sexually explicit one. Very depressing to imagine that perfectly functioning woman chose to take her life. I mean, playing cards one moment and drinking poison, the next? And her children watching her die? The botched attempt with the plastic bag over her head? Pretty morbid stuff.
Hi Jeff!
Just read your bio, so I guess I didn’t need to explain how different the US schools are from the UK.
I still am baffled how these films are shown to students under 18. What does “college” mean in Europe? Because here, these films could be presented in college courses and only raise a few eyebrows. But in K-12? Not acceptable w/o a teacher being fired. Then again, there is no religious ed class in public school. My DH is a cradle-Catholic who attended parochial school through graduation. But that was a long time ago.
I’m a “convert” too, but from another Christian denomination. RCIA was my “born-again Christian” event as an adult. I’m fascinated by someone who went from atheist to Catholicism. It must be amazing to experience Baptism at an age where you can remember it! I had to go to confession, since there is no double-dipping;)
Love your blog!
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