Any California parent with a child who is a student in school can suddenly find that the parent’s very right to make key decisions for his or her child is endangered.
An avalanche of legislation from Sacramento, passed and in the works, aims to remove parents from decisions ranging from what their children learn in school to whether they can independently decide to identify as another sex. Already in California children can obtain birth control and procure abortions from clinics the age of 12, without the knowledge or permission of parents.
However, the U.S. Constitution, U.S. case law, natural law and Catholic teaching are on the side of parents’ rights, two experts told a room full of parents and others at Mater Dolorosa Parish in South San Francisco during Religious Freedom Week on June 22. The talk was titled “Parental Rights & Religious Freedom: Where do we stand? What can we do?”, and sponsored by the Archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity.
“You all have a responsibility to be civically active,” California Policy Center Vice President for Education Policy & Government Affairs Lance Christensen told those assembled. “The First Amendment of the United States Constitution says this, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or bridging the freedom of speech or of the press or the right of the people to peaceably assemble.’”
“Citizens have lots of rights in those few words,” said Christensen, who noted he is a seventh generation Californian, a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints and married with five children who attend public school in Central California.
With 6,000 political jurisdictions, from state senate and assembly districts to city council and water boards, there are many places for people of faith to become active in California. The Brown Act requires open meetings and gives citizens the right to speak at those meetings, Christensen said. He urged attending the meetings and supporting people of faith running for office at local levels, particularly for school boards. And Christensen urged those present not to give up on California.
The Catholic Church clearly teaches that parents are the primary educators of their children and that is a right no government can take away, said Ryan Mayer, director of Catholic Identity Assessment and Formation for the Archdiocese of San Francisco. That principle is also grounded in reason and therefore parents’ rights to educate their children can be argued without reference to religion, Mayer said.
Further, U.S. case law has been very clear about the rights of parents to educate their children, Mayer said.
“Parents are prior to any state. This is a right that comes from God and as such it is a natural right. It’s a right that belongs by nature to parents as parents. That means it’s something that even though it’s also a religious principle, it’s also a religious freedom,” said Mayer, who is married with four young children.
In addition to canon law, the 1983 Charter for the Rights of Family from the Holy See is very clear, he said, and lists a number of rights that belong to parents as primary educators.
Both Christensen and Mayer said the solution for parents to control their children’s education is some form of school choice. Catholic and private schools are largely out of reach of most people because of the cost, Mayer said. The Church teaches it is a matter of social justice that the state fund religious schools.
Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have supported the use of taxpayer money to pay educational costs for all children, not just those in public schools, said Christensen. In a number of states, various forms of school choice have been and are being enacted. So far, the concept has not gotten very far in California for various reasons, including lack of education of Catholics on their rights and strong opposition by the public-school teachers’ union.
Raising the subject is the first step, Mayer said.
“Be an advocate for school choice, especially in California. This is a matter of Catholic social teaching. For Catholics, we absolutely should be advocating for school choice,” said Mayer.
“One of the biggest scandals in Catholic education is the cost of Catholic education for some families. In some cases, a year of high school costs 20, $25,000 a year. That’s insane. How do you do that? I have no idea how one does that. … The Catholic church teaches you actually have a right to those subsidies. And advocate for others to be advocates for school choice. Because again, most people don’t know this.”
“This is what the church teaches,” said Mayer, “and it’s actually a matter of social justice, Catholic social teaching.”
The talk was one of two Archdiocese of San Francisco events sponsored by the Office of Human Life & Dignity during Religious Freedom Week, June 22-29. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops created the annual weeklong recognition of religious liberty which begins on the Memorial of English martyrs St. Thomas More and St. John Fischer and concludes on the Memorial of Sts.Peter and Paul.
More information courtesy Ryan Mayer: Religious Freedom & Parental Rights in Education, Selected Quotations; Charter for the Rights of the Family, Article 5
Catholics are only learning now what the Mormons have known all along. Faith begins and ends at home and the culture that will sustain children in faith into adulthood is through and through, sun rise to sundown the culture the parents intentionally and deliberately create socially, recreationally, politically, spiritually and religiously every single day of every single year.
“Catholics are only learning now what the Mormons have known all along.” Yes asdf. you are quite right. As unlikely as it is that the Mormon church should even exist and then grow as it has, I believe God wants the rest of Christendom, and Catholicism in particular, to learn from what they are doing that is right in the eyes of our Lord. — and you beautifully encapsulated it in your post. Note: every (?) Sunday the Mormon church near me has their regular service, Sunday school, and a third hour where men and women meet separately in something of a discipleship class. I added the (?) because I do not know if the third hour is every Sunday or reserved for special Sundays. Therein you have a very deep inculcation of Mormon faith and practice, besides what is accomplished at home.
Catholic churches meet daily and usually have Sunday School and adult ed
Not defending Mormon ‘theology’ but the fact is that for at least the last 2 generations, Catholics had relied solely on Mass and “Sunday School” and delusionally believed this would be sufficient to carry their children’s faith into adulthood. It wasn’t even close. The Mormon’s faith and beliefs are woven into the very fabric of their lives from the time they get out of bed till the time they go to sleep. They create an entire culture around they’re kids. That isn’t just a discipline a lot of them have. It’s part of the practice of being a Mormon, like going to Mass and supporting the Church is part of the practice of being Catholic.
This is false. Catholics have known even before the Mormons that the parents are the first teachers of the child in the ways of faith. Catholics have not “relied solely” on the Mass and “Sunday school.” Why do you have to belittle Catholics in the process of making your point? The culture of entire nations were imbued with Catholicism because the Church knew this.
The attack on the family continues to rage in America. Satan is trying to destroy the family created by Almighty God! Parents take up the cross and defend your children. Children are the responsibility of parents.
Archbishop Mitty costs almost $27,000 per year. And it’s not even a Catholic education. It’s a liberal Democrat, religious relativist indoctrination camp.
Wow, that couple seems really young to already have five children. But they look happy together.
Mary Ellen/YFC – Nice try at twisting truth.
“But they look happy together.” These men are not married to each other. The Mormon church has not fallen in with liberal protestants.
Dan, a lady from the Mormon Community helped me out with passing the proposition for marriage between one man and one woman way back when Bishop/Cardinal Lavada was in San Francisco. Even then the Mormon church in my area was divided over the issue. No church remains unaffected by all this.
I was not referring to the men in the picture above, though. I assume if they are married, they are married to women.
In 2006, the same year of the marriage prop, I met someone whose daughter had to leave BYU because she got so much crap from other girls for not liking girls.
Mormons have the same problems we do.
“Mormons have the same problems we do. Good to know. People are people everywhere no matter what the church.
Probably way more to this story. If it is true, what is also true is that BYU is very clear and forthright on gender ideology being not ordained by God as they understand God. BYU is analogous to CUA and not to Notre Dame, Georgetown and certainly not USF.
“Even then the Mormon church in my area was divided over the issue.” Thanks Anne, I didn’t know this. But Joseph Smith had many wives, and if polygamy is in their tradition, why not other aberrant forms? However, it seems odd that Mormons might be conflicted on the issue, as marriages sealed in the Temple are marriages for all eternity; the couple becomes gods and produce spiritual progeny which becomes people on the planet. Two male gods could hardly be up to the task.
Well the god Jupiter/Zeus engaged in all kinds of depravity but most of the stories are cleaned up for children’s books. One example is the story of the rape of Europa. That is why the New Testament refers to Jupiter/ Zeus’s throne as the Seat of Satan.
In regard to my post July 5 at 12:50 pm, I am not saying that is Mormon doctrine on the afterlife, though.
Mormons are very much not like Catholics in that being very public about their faith and right and wrong is very uncomfortable. Very rare to see them at a pro-life rally or in front of an abortion business. I think that is partly because very few are comfortable defending their ‘theology’ despite the frequent door to door missionaries we see. The conflict between Mormons here is more likely to be whether to stick their necks out publicly on the issue rather than the issue itself.
Im confused. What is YFC?
Better: “Who is YFC?” YFC= Your Fellow Catholic, a homosexual Catholic who is a frequent contributor to these pages.