Girl Scouts Face Opposition From St. Louis Archbishop
What an asshole. As a Girl Scout dad, I support the organization fully and think they're a wonderful organization. This guy can fuck off.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis is encouraging Roman Catholics to scale back ties with the Girl Scouts, advising church members to think twice about membership and even about buying their cookies.
The warnings came in a letter from Archbishop Robert J. Carlson and in a statement on the archdiocese’s website about how the church is distancing itself from the Girl Scouts, which it says supports transgender rights, homosexuality and other stances at odds with Catholic values.
In the letter addressed to priests, followers, and scout leaders, Archbishop Carlson announced two new measures. He instructed pastors to discuss alternatives for the Girl Scout troops that meet on parish property. He also disbanded the archdiocese’s Catholic Committee on Girl Scouts, which sponsored Catholic programs for the scouts, and formed a new entity called the Catholic Committee for Girls Formation that will include alternative youth leadership programs. About 515,000 Catholics live in the archdiocese, which includes the city of St. Louis and 10 surrounding counties.
“Girl Scouts is exhibiting a troubling pattern of behavior and it is clear to me that as they move in the ways of the world it is becoming increasingly incompatible with our Catholic values,” the archbishop wrote in the letter, dated Feb. 18.
The Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri chapter includes more than 43,000 girls in the St. Louis area. More than 4,000 of them are in troops based in Catholic schools and parishes, Bonnie Barczykowski, the chapter’s chief executive, said in an emailed statement on Wednesday.
Ms. Barczykowski said the Girl Scouts organization valued its nearly 100-year history of cooperation with the archdiocese but added that the archdiocese’s concerns “misrepresent how Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri serves girls in our community.”
She said the chapter did not address issues of human sexuality or reproductive issues “as these matters are best discussed within the family.”
There appeared to be limited effects immediately after the archdiocese’s announcements. Ms. Barczykowski said many troop leaders had confirmed they would stay on. If Girl Scout troops are displaced from parish meeting places, she said, they would have options to meet in public libraries, community centers, and religious centers.
“There has been an outpouring of support from our community,” she said.
The controversy over scouting has been brewing for some time, but the archbishop’s letter publicly laid out how the church would change its relationship with the Scouts and encouraged others to dissociate themselves.
“It is not cutting ties,” Brian Miller, executive director of the archdiocese’s Catholic Youth Apostolate, said of the letter. “It is asking folks to really evaluate what we are doing and why we are doing it because of the problems we have seen and the issues that have come up a few times.”
The archdiocese followed the letter with a guide of answers to frequently asked questions, including whether a Catholic could buy Girl Scout cookies (“Each person must act in accord with their conscience”and how to find Catholic-leaning alternatives to the Girl Scouts.
The archdiocese highlighted the cookies because it said a percentage of local sales could go to the national parent organization, the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.
Archbishop Carlson criticized the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. for its ties to Amnesty International, the Coalition for Adolescent Girls, Oxfam and other groups because of their support for sex education and reproductive rights. He said the organization’s promotion of Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan as role models was “in conflict with Christian values.”
What an asshole. As a Girl Scout dad, I support the organization fully and think they're a wonderful organization. This guy can fuck off.
