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Catholic school removes Catholic statues to be 'inclusive'

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Our society has forgotten what inclusive means.

In a bid to be inclusive, a Catholic school has removed most of its Catholic statues from school grounds. San Dominico school in California has even removed the word 'Catholic' from its mission statement.

One of the 18 remaining statues at the school.

One of the 18 remaining statues at the school.

Highlights

By Marshall Connolly
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
8/29/2017 (6 years ago)

Published in U.S.

Keywords: San Dominico, Catholic, school, statues, inclusive, mission statement, removed, left, atheism

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- San Dominico School in San Anselmo, California, is the nation's oldest, continually operating Catholic school, originally founded in 1850. It serves 671 students, and 80 percent "do not identify as Catholic" school officials report. Because fewer students are identifying as Catholic, the school has decided to alter its image and make itself less Catholic.
 
The school board has a plan to maintain enrollment and serve the community. As part of that plan, the school removed the word "Catholic" from its mission statement, changed the school colors and uniform to be "less Catholic," and most recently removed all but 18 of its 180 statues.
 


The removal of the statues occurred at the same time as the protests in Charlottesville, but was already planned in advance of that unrest.
 
According to the school, their plan is to appeal to more students by being more inclusive. It was feared that the statues and overt Catholic image was off-putting to some prospective students at the K-12 school.
 
If this story sounds insane, it's because it is. In our rush to be inclusive, we are being exclusive.
 
Inclusive means we accept all people, perspectives and ideas, even if we don't like them. We allow others to gather, to express their opinions, and to be as they wish to be. This means we have to accept a society with Nazi flags, rainbow flags, and Catholic statues alike.
 
Our tolerance of these things does not mean we condone them. In fact, we are welcome to criticize these things. However, for some reason, the Catholic Church, whose message is that we must love God, love one another, and follow Christ, is offensive to many people. Its icons must be removed, the same as Confederate statues erected during the Jim Crow era.
 
Catholic statues are under threat across the nation. Several have been vandalized in the U.S. in recent months, including the defacing of a statue of Fr. Junipero Serra in Los Angeles.  Leftist activists want that statue removed too.
 
This is a telling demand. The left isn't interested in inclusiveness or tolerance. They want to eliminate ideas that compete with their ideology. This is why communism is atheistic. The leftist state is the god and the church.
 
The lie, propagated in the media and across social networks is that inclusiveness  means the deletion of all things they don't like. Yes, black lives matter, and it's okay to be gay, or to identify yourself as one of nearly a hundred different distinct genders. However, if you are Christian, then you are the same as the Nazis. You deserve to be beaten down, your past erased and your faith forgotten. And anyone who disagrees is somehow an evil, bigoted person.
 
That isn't inclusiveness.
 
Freedom means letting others do things you don't like. That includes being Catholic. The left isn't about freedom or inclusiveness. It is about atheism, control, and stamping out everything that it doesn't like.
 
Today it's one school. It's a few dozen statues. Tomorrow will it be parish churches? Will it be you?

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

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