It looks like Bishop Robert Vasa of Bend, Oregon, is not going to let some USCCBureaucrat tell him what he must or must not do in his own diocese. The good bishop has decided that the “safe environment sex education” programs mandated by Teresa Kettelkamp in the Office of Child and Youth Protection leave some disturbing questions unanswered and so he’s not going to implement them, even at the risk of getting a “Non-Compliance” rating in his diocese’s audit.
Good for him. He’s standing up and saying that a bishop is sovereign in his diocese concerning these sorts of things and that no one can order him to do something immoral. The bishop does leave something ambiguous. He says: “In the diocese, we have indicated that such training must be made available to all children under our supervision in our Catholic schools but have not taken on the nearly impossible task of assuming responsibility for every child in the diocese.” If the programs are a problem for children, are they going to stop it in the schools? He leaves that unanswered, but based on his objections it would be very inconsistent if he didn’t.
