More than 1,200 people have signed a petition presented to the institution, St. Ann Catholic School in Prairie Village, urging administrators to allow the child into kindergarten at the school, which serves students through eighth grade. Over a third of the people who had signed by Friday were parish members or had children enrolled in the school; others belonged to different parishes.
“One of the many reasons that we choose to send our children to St. Ann is the welcoming culture, which is central to the original ministry of Jesus Christ,” said an accompanying letter addressed to Archbishop Joseph Naumann and the superintendent of the archdiocese’s schools, Kathleen O’Hara.
“We ask you to consider the many ways that other modern marriages may be inconsistent with the Church’s teaching on Sacramental marriage (i.e. vasectomy, IVF, divorce, and remarriage without approved annulment),” the letter said. “Further, St. Ann does accept non-Catholic children and families into our school. Presumably, these families are not in marriages that are conformant to the teachings of the Church.”
The controversy in Prairie Village, a city of about 21,000 people in the Kansas City area, has highlighted how Catholic institutions generally follow the rules of their dioceses, even when they conflict with the law.
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The Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the Constitution guarantees a right to same-sex marriage, and some state and local laws bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, but religious institutions are exempt from those protections.
Joe Skates, 46, who lives in Prairie Village but whose child attends a different Catholic school, was one of the people who signed. He said on Friday that he was motivated to sign it because of what he called the hypocrisy of Catholic institutions that take action against gay parents while the religious hierarchy has protected and promoted priests who have abused children.
“Their hypocrisy knows no bounds,” he said. “They say they are not allowing a kindergartner in one of their schools because the parents don’t go along with the teachings of the Bible?”
“To take it even deeper, you are punishing the child for the sins of his parents — if you truly believe his parents are sinning,” Skates said.
The divisions were also highlighted in comments on the St. Ann Catholic Church’s Facebook page. “Wonder how many parishioners take birth control or eat meat on Fridays,” wrote one person. “Do ANY of the student’s parents ever get divorced? Have any parishioners cheated on spouses? Sooooo hypocritical. This is why the number of followers will continue to decrease.”
In a statement on its website, the archdiocese responded to the controversy and laid out its admissions policy. The statement said same-sex parents “cannot model behaviors and attitudes regarding marriage and sexual morality consistent with essential components of the Church’s teachings.”
“This creates a conflict for their children between what they are taught in school and what is experienced at home,” it continued. “It also becomes a source of confusion for the other schoolchildren.”
The letter and the backlash that sprang from the school’s decision were reported this week by The Kansas City Star.
Administrators at the school and the archdiocese did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment Friday. It was not immediately clear when the decision to reject the child’s enrollment had been made or became public. The family has not been publicly identified.
But in a letter last month to parishioners, administrators and parents, the Rev. Craig Maxim, the pastor at St. Ann, said he had met with many people with divergent views. “I am distressed over the division this sensitive and complex issue has caused within our school and church,” he wrote.
“It is true that other dioceses across the country have views on same-sex unions that provide avenues for the children of these couples to attend Catholic schools,” Maxim said. “Other local schools not affiliated with our Archdiocese also have different policies. Each diocese has the ability to form policy on these matters while individual diocesan schools do not.”
Teachers have been fired from Catholic schools in some states after marrying their same-sex partners, including a teacher in Florida last year whose removal became national news.
In Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly signed an executive order in January that extended discrimination protections to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender state employees, but Kansas has no similar protections for such employees who do not work for the government, said Tom Witt, the executive director of Equality Kansas, an advocacy group in Wichita.
He said the St. Ann decision was not the first of its kind in Kansas. “There are a number of kids who have been kicked out or denied admission because of the sexual orientation of their parents.”
Witt added that he knew other couples who were “rightfully scared to come out until their kids have graduated.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.