What is interesting about the recent statement in the San Diego diocese banning homeschoolers from using parish facilities is that it opens with, “parents are the first teachers of their children,” yet it concludes with, “homeschooling is not inherently a ministry of the parish.” If parents are the first teachers of their children, shouldn’t that all-important and sacred duty be a ministry of the parish?
Perhaps I am confused about what “ministry” means. We are all aware of the usual sacramental ministries, the Knights of Columbus, and the traditional spiritual ministries, but what are the others? I went to the websites of a few parishes in San Diego. I’ll list a few of my findings here to give you an idea of what the parishes in that diocese do support as ministries.
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At the beautiful, historic Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá, I found the “Care for Our Common Home ministry.” This is an environmentalist group that ties itself to the papal encyclical Laudato Si’. The website says that it seeks to carry out the steps of the Diocese of San Diego’s 2021 “Creation Care Action Plan,” a 55-page document that, in various ways, takes up the cause of “environmental justice.” It claims to “respond to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth” by outlining ways to reduce energy, conserve water, recycle, buy and share food and reduce food waste, support “clean energy,” protect watersheds and wildlife, and is dedicated to “advocating for the earth and the poor,” among other things.
At Our Lady of Guadalupe, a Jesuit parish, is a “migrant ministry” that serves “Spanish-speaking migrant men” for up to 30 days. At this same church is the “Faith that Does Justice ministry,” “an ecumenical group” in which “speakers from other faiths have made presentations about their religions and what their religion says about social justice.” That was not in the fine print, either, but right up top in the first paragraph describing the ministry.
At this same parish is a “Faith in Action Project” which was formed by “around 15 members, who want to put our faith into action” and has
the support of our priests and office staff and the San Diego Organizing Project (SDOP). SDOP is a 21-congregation, non-partisan, multi-faith, faith-based organization that elevates the prophetic power of the people, to promote social and environmental justice in San Diego County.
In addition, I found various ethnic ministries, from Spanish-speaking outreaches to Filipino and Vietnamese cultural organizations.
There are certain groups that are allowed as ministries and certain groups that are not allowed. We all know which category the homeschooling group falls into.
“Social justice,” migrant, and environmental ministries all fall under the heading of Catholic materialism and therefore constitute a protected class. They do not undermine the ideological goals of the Vatican. Rather, they all work toward the same material goal—making sure everyone has more stuff and better stuff, and, importantly, that we focus on stuff of the material kind. Works of corporal mercy, to be sure, have their place. Christ showed us that. But these ministries are exclusively about the material, giving the impression that we are, foremost, material beings, which we as Catholics know to be false.
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The Catholic homeschoolers represent a different side of the Catholic Church, which is precisely why they have been banned from using church property, even though migrant meet-ups and LGBTQ+ groups can reserve parish space weekly.
The “Cardinal’s Statement on Home School Use of Parish Buildings” reveals that the first and most sacred duty of parents—all parents, not just parents that belong to this or that ethnic or cultural group—cannot be supported by the parish except insofar as parents hand over that duty to the experts (for a good picture of who these experts are and what they have been doing with their authority for the last 60 years, see Fr. Perricone’s recent article).
Let’s return to the “Cardinal’s Statement.” The second of four points states that allowing homeschoolers the use of parish facilities would “create the impression that the Church is endorsing a parallel educational model without the in-depth educational oversight that the Church carries out in its parochial school program.”
That’s right, folks, those in charge of the Church are afraid that these parents who take seriously the idea that they are the “first teachers of their children” are not qualified actually to teach their children. Clearly, His Eminence Robert McElroy has not met any of these homeschoolers; if he had, he would know that by the third grade many of them could identify countries on a map that I didn’t know existed until I was in my thirties—and homeschooling!
