Pope Francis has said that Catholics who are homosexual, confused about their sexuality or convinced they were born in the wrong body deserve the same attentive pastoral care as anyone else. That is advise officials at Camden Catholic should take to heart.
All is not well on the campus of Camden Catholic High School in Cherry Hill. Several reports of racism and bias have come to light that have given the parochial school a black eye.
In one instance, the N-word was etched into a bench in the boys' locker room, according to the parent of a student who was standout player on Camden Catholic's 2013 football team. That parent, who referees high school basketball games, said the racial climate at the school is so bad that she refuses to referee games there.
In another case, two parents of black girls on the school's 2016-17 basketball team said a white player made a racially insensitive comment to their daughters, igniting a protest outside the school.
Earlier this year, a former Camden Catholic student was expelled from the University of Alabama after videos of her spouting racist language on Martin Luther King Jr. Day went viral.
More recently, a big flap occurred when the school fired football coach Nick Strom and put him on administrative leave from his history teaching position late last month. Strom claims he was fired because he had too many black players on the team.
Camden Catholic officials strongly denied allegations of racism. School President Mary Whipkey said Strom's "priorities for football became bigger than his priorities for teaching."
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School officials point with pride to the diversity of the school, which has about 780 students, 40 percent of whom are minority students.
"We are a diverse school, so a diverse school is going to lead to things that other schools don't deal with," Whipkey said.
A review by the Diocese of Camden's Office of Schools determined administrators at the school properly handled the issue involving the basketball players and took appropriate disciplinary action.
But the fact that two sides can see the situation in starkly different ways indicates that something is wrong.
Even if there is merely a perception of racism at Camden Catholic, the school should be taking forceful action to reinforce the Christian values it champions and denounce racism in all its forms. What we are seeing now is a defensive posture from school officials.
Camden Catholic also faced a barrage of criticism over the firing of softball coach Jillian Mulderig, who was told to leave in July 2016 when school officials learned she intended to marry another woman.
Mulderig, who did not teach at the school, said officials knew she was gay when she was hired to coach. But when a recording of her proposing to her girlfriend was posted to YouTube, she was fired.
"I remember feeling so nauseous," Mulderig said.
Shortly after Mulderig's firing, Camden Catholic made headlines again in September 2016 when it rescinded admission to a transgender student who was accepted to the school as a female and later transitioned to male.
But as a religious institution that opposes same-sex marriage and gender reassignment on moral grounds, Catholic schools have the right to require that teachers and coaches practice what it preaches.
Yet, in an age when gays and transgender people have won hard-fought battles for recognition and acceptance and the same rights accorded to other individuals, one has to feel compassion for Mulderig and others who are told they are not welcome.
These are issues the church and society are grappling with. Pope Francis has said that Catholics who are homosexual, confused about their sexuality or convinced they were born in the wrong body deserve the same attentive pastoral care as anyone else.
That is advise officials at Camden Catholic should take to heart.
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