This is the opinion of chairman of the school commission of the German Bishops’ Conference. It is also the foundation of a recent document issued by the bishops’ conference, which calls for “the recognition of the diversity of sexual orientations in schools.”
The document provides “educational and pastoral guidelines for a sensitive approach to sexual diversity,” which “emphasize holistic personality development and respect for the dignity of every person,” reported Katholisch.de.
Entitled “Created, Redeemed, and Loved,” this new set of guidelines poinst out a variety of ways students, parents, and teachers can safeguard diversity in schools. They emphasize, firstly, that “everyone at a school bears responsibility for fostering a positive school climate and respectful treatment” of queer youth. Students, for instance, should “stand up against discrimination and be sensitive to hurtful, exclusionary insults directed at others.” The bishops also highlight the monumental role of teachers in this undertaking, stating:
“Teachers should pay attention to the gender and role models, as well as homophobic stereotypes, conveyed in learning materials. They should foster a classroom climate in which children and young people feel seen and taken seriously as they explore their sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The document also calls on teachers to present Catholic doctrine about queer people in a “nuanced way,” to allow students to form their own reasoned opinions.
In an interview with Catholic publication Die Tagespost, Bishop Thomas Maria Renz had many positive things to say about “Created, Redeemed, and Loved.” Renz points out that there has been an increase in hostility towards queer young people in his own diocese, acknowledged by the “Catholic Free School of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart,” which comprises approximately 90 schools. This trend of growing hostility made a statement from the bishops “necessary and desirable.”
Renz also points out the limitations of the document, saying that because it is “not the Church’s task” to make scientific determinations on sexual identity, any attempt to use the document to do so will fail. The Church cannot commit itself to a position when the topic is still so heatedly debated in circles of experts, he added.
Rather than make sweeping generalizations, Renz believes that the Church must discern between “accepting those who feel differently” and “naively blessing everything that young people may feel” during adolescence. What the Church should work towards, according to Renz, is becoming “a safe space of goodwill,” and providing “freedom from fear, trust, and patience, in which young people have the time to find, accept, and stabilize their sexual identity.”