The celebrations of the so-called «Pride Month» have no place in a Catholic educational institution. This is the view of Father Colin J. Blatchford, associate director of Courage International, who warns that these initiatives contradict Christian anthropology, «cause scandal,» and ultimately weaken the Catholic identity of the universities that promote them.
The priest’s statements respond to an inquiry from the Cardinal Newman Society, which has documented how various Catholic universities in the United States—including Georgetown, Notre Dame, and DePaul—organize each year activities linked to Pride Month, such as Pride parades, recreational events, or institutional campaigns aimed at reaffirming LGBTQ identity among students.
Several of these institutions also maintain offices and specific resources to promote such identities, while offering little material that explains the Church’s teaching on human sexuality or warns about the premises of gender ideology.
“Pride Month is based on a vision incompatible with Christian anthropology”
Asked whether a Catholic university may promote this type of celebration, Blatchford answers unequivocally: “No.”
In his view, “the anthropological foundations of ‘Pride Month’ include a dualistic vision of the person and a radical autonomy.” In contrast, he recalls that the Magisterium of recent popes has insisted that no sexual orientation, attraction, or label can fully define a person’s identity above the essential truth of being a “beloved child of God.”
“When we exalt our own opinion above the truth, we become gods unto ourselves,” the priest warns, noting that this way of understanding identity ultimately leads to frustration and isolation.
“There can be no communion if each group has its own morality”
Blatchford considers one of the most serious effects of these initiatives to be the fragmentation of the university community and of the Church itself.
“It leads to division and tribalism,” he states.
The priest recalls that all the baptized have received the same universal call to holiness and that the fundamental identity of the Christian does not depend on sexual orientation or a sociological category, but on the divine filiation received in Baptism.
“If we are separated into different groups with different principles or moral norms, then there can be no communion either in the Church or in society,” he maintains.
“Catholic universities empty their own mission”
The associate director of Courage International also warns that a Catholic university ceases to fulfill its mission fully when it selectively chooses which aspects of doctrine to accept and which to omit.
“When a Catholic university decides which theological or philosophical teachings of the Church it will respect, it empties that process and leaves only an emotional structure where there should be a full relationship with God,” he asserts.
For this reason, he maintains that the institutional promotion of “Pride” not only generates doctrinal confusion among students but also “causes scandal” among the faithful.
The pastoral response lies in truth and charity
Far from advocating rejection of persons who experience same-sex attraction or confusion regarding their sexual identity, Blatchford defends a deeply Christian accompaniment based on truth and compassion.
“Compassion means to suffer with,” he explains. “We must enter into their suffering and make it our own. In this way they will come to know the love of God and we can help them discover that they are loved and that God has a plan for their lives.”
The priest encourages Catholic institutions to convey three certainties to those going through these situations: that they are loved by God, that He has a purpose for their life, and that the Church is called to walk with them without renouncing the truth of the Gospel.