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“While the Catholic Church joins with our nation in teaching that all lives are equal before God and the law and that all lives demand our respect regardless of race, gender or ethnicity, the flag with the emblem Black Lives Matter has at times been coopted by some factions which also instill broad-brush distrust of police and those entrusted with enforcing our laws. In January 2021, Nativity School of Worcester began flying a “Black Lives Matter” flag and a rainbow flag beneath the American flag outside its school building.Ī public conflict over the flags erupted earlier this month, after Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester directed the school to take down the flags.īishop McManus acknowledged that people differ over what symbols mean, but he said the two flags are incompatible with Catholic teaching. “But today we need to do a better job of explaining that.” “Unfortunately, when there is not a policy, it can look like it is a personal decision, or it’s an arbitrary decision, when in fact I would argue that the bishop is upholding Catholic teaching,” Reilly said. Reilly told the Register people who run and work at Catholic institutions need to know “the expectations that the Church has and why it has them.” And I think the only way we’re going to resolve the growing distance between our Catholic culture and what the Church believes is if our Catholic schools are much more clear as to what the beliefs are that they should hold to and what the policies are that they should follow,” said Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a Virginia-based organization that promotes and defends what it calls “faithful Catholic education.” “I try to look at these issues from both sides. A dispute in central Massachusetts between a bishop and a Jesuit school that is flying the “Black Lives Matter” flag and a rainbow flag is an example of how dioceses would benefit from developing and publicizing detailed policies about what Catholic institutions can and can’t do, an expert on Catholic education said.