Parents have expressed dismay after a Catholic primary school in London announced that it will introduce a “gender neutral” uniform policy that will allow boys to wear skirts from September.
St Anthony’s Catholic primary school in East Dulwich announced the new policy in its weekly newsletter, saying that it will provide a single uniform list from which boys and girls can choose which items to wear.
Jane Day, the headteacher, said: “I am pleased to announce that the governors have approved the introduction of a gender neutral uniform which will be introduced in September.
“Rather than having a separate uniform for girls and boys, one uniform list will be produced and girls and boys can choose whether they wear skirts, pinafores, shorts or trousers. There is no change to the uniform which will remain grey, green, yellow and white.”
The blog Listening in the Desert said the announcement had left parents “stunned and upset as it goes completely against the teachings of the Catholic Church”. The author, Clare Short, said that parents “were not consulted or informed whatsoever of the changes to the uniform”.
At least 120 schools now have a gender neutral uniform policy, according to the gay rights group Educate & Celebrate. “In our experience, primary schools are adopting [gender neutral uniforms] faster than secondary schools,” Dr Elly Barnes, the group’s founder, said.
Pope Francis has condemned “gender ideology” many times. In October he said: “It is one thing for a person to have this tendency” but that it was very different “to teach this in schools in order to change mentalities. This I call ideological colonisation.”
Yawning youngsters inspire priest to cut homilies short
A priest in Northern Ireland has promised his parishioners that his homilies will no longer last more than five minutes.
Fr Paddy O’Kane, writing for Derry Now, made the commitment after he heard several “short, sharp” sermons during a trip to Texas.
He said that many priests, “including myself, are under the illusion that our homilies are more interesting than they really are. A wise old priest once told me: ‘If you cannot strike oil in the first five minutes, better stop drilling,’ ” he recalled.
He told the Belfast Telegraph that shorter sermons would be more accommodating to children. A parent, he said, had asked him why they should take their children to Mass “when all they do is yawn throughout a long sermon in a language they don’t understand”.
The priest said a five-minute limit would be “difficult”, but that his parishioners were supportive: “In fact one wag said: ‘Could you not make it four minutes, Father?’ ”
In a previous column Fr O’Kane had lamented that First Holy Communions were being reduced to an “orgy of materialism”, with “miniature brides” and “bouncy castles”.
Grenfell ‘shows power of priesthood’
Cardinal Vincent Nichols ordained seven men to the priesthood at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday.
The cardinal described priests’ ministry in the aftermath of the Grenfell fire.
He described priests prayed for the dead and sprinkled holy water on the debris. “This, for me, is a most remarkable image of priesthood, etched in sharp detail against that blackened, towering skeleton,” he said.
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