Today I read a news article in the Dutch press which, for reasons unknown to myself, seeing as I normally don’t do this kind of thing, prompted me to do some translating and some thinking.

My lazy translation can be found here: Ban on discrimination of homosexuals in schools

I have three things to say about this article and the issues surrounding it.

It’s not clear to me, reading the piece, how the proposed law will do what it says it will. There are, evidently, two factors under consideration: first, the simple fact that a teacher is homosexual (which according to the article, includes living openly as such, or being in a homosexual relationship), and secondly, ‘secondary circumstances’, or issues (such as being at a Gay Pride event) related to his being homosexual. Termination or refusal of employment on the basis of the former is illegal; when it comes to the second, however, it does not seem to be. Miss Bergkamp seems to say that it is the first condition which will be removed from the statute books…but how is that going to help them? In this sense I would have appreciated some more precise reporting from nu.nl.

Moroever, the ‘simple fact’ that a person is homosexual does not necessarily entail that he is either open about it, nor that he is in a homosexual relationship. Just as it is possible to be heterosexual and not in a relationship, is it also possible for homosexuals. From the point of view of Catholic doctrine – not that there are any real Catholic schools to speak of in this country anymore which would foresee problems – this in itself curtails the (Catholic) school’s ability to do its job. A school which enshrines religious tenets which state that marriage is the state in life in which sexual activity takes place, and that that selfsame marriage is by definition a heterosexual union, must – if it is to be faithful to those religious convictions – be able to demand a standard of living and behaviour from its teachers (and other employees) if it is to be authentic. By incorrectly placing the dividing line between the basic state of Same Sex Attraction and any actions upon SSA, Dutch law cripples its schools.

As such, these changes in law bring the Dutch principle of ‘Freedom of education’ – that parents should be able to educate their children as they wish, and have schools at their disposal to do so, seeing as they also contribute to state-funded education through their taxes – further into grave danger. Being a truly faithful Catholic parent – and I’m not convinced many exist in the Netherlands – means recognising this growing dilemma. As mentioned above, there are, I’d wager, no Catholic schools in the country which would have enough courage to stand up to such an unjust law, and at a certain point a conscientious parent must say that such a ‘Catholic’ school is not conducive to the faith of his child. Education at an orthodox Protestant school may provide a solution, but if a Catholic pupil is admitted (and that is not always certain), the risk is also present that a Protestant school will also endanger the pupil’s faith. Education at a non-Christian (e.g. Muslim or Hindu) school is even less desirable. ‘Public’ (i.e. unaffiliated) schools only guarantee the exposure of pupils to non-Catholic teachings all the more.

There are precious few schools in the country which are partly or completely free of government funding (and as such – possibly – exempt from such legal provision for homosexuals). The scarcity of the same is the first obstacle for such an education route, even if a private, truly Catholic school were even to exist. The second obstacle to parents would be the enormous cost of such an education: running a school is not cheap, and taxes here are high enough. In the same way, sending children to a good school abroad is often financially prohibitive.

Given that schooling outside the home is becoming all the more untenable for Catholic parents, what about education within the home?

Homeschooling is a tricky beast in the Netherlands. It would take an enormous amount of strength to undertake it, with all the stigma and threat of prosecution attached. I know very little about homeschooling, nowhere near as much as I would like to, so I don’t feel qualified to comment much beyond this. I know of perhaps two families who have, tenaciously, held on, but it was not without much hardship.

Catholic parents who take their duties seriously – the vast majority don’t, from what I’ve seen – are in for a truly hard time. It’s not a new phenomenon here, in a country famed for its diabolical secularism, but seems to yet only get worse. It could perhaps be considered a kind of martyrdom. We can certainly speak of in odium fidei.