Posted on 04/11/2014 4:14:13 AM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Responding to concerns about Catholic involvement with Girl Scouts, a U.S. bishops' committee released key points from its dialogue with Girl Scout leaders outlining major concerns of church leaders and the national organization's responses.
The aim of the resource, issued April 2 by the bishops' Committee on Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth, was not to support or oppose Catholic involvement with Girl Scouts of the USA, known as GSUSA, but to provide local bishops, pastors, youth leaders and parents with necessary information to determine their level of involvement.
Catholics have been affiliated with Girl Scouts for 100 years and there are an estimated 400,000 Catholic girls among the nation's 3 million Girl Scouts. In the past few years, questions about the organization have sparked online discussions, boycotts of Girl Scout cookies and the ousting of troops from Catholic parishes.
Concerns have been raised about the Girl Scouts' relationship with Planned Parenthood and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, known as WAGGGS. There also have been questions about the organization's policy on human sexuality and contraception and its program materials and resources.
The bishops' committee spent one year gathering information about concerns and another year in dialogue with Girl Scout leaders in an effort to clarify the issues.
"The exchanges between USCCB staff and GSUSA staff were pleasant, informative and respectful. GSUSA staff was generous with their time, indicated a strong desire and willingness to work more closely with the Catholic Church in the United States," said the committee, noting that the resource materials are not only posted on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops website, www.usccb.org, but also the Girl Scouts site, www.girlscouts.org.
In providing the information it obtained, the committee said the decision for Catholics to participate or not in Girl Scouts is a local one and that "diocesan bishops have the final authority over what is appropriate for Catholic Scouting in their dioceses."
This material "does not intend to be exhaustive," the committee noted, nor was it an attempt to "make decisions or set out national norms."
It also recognized "the history of significant work and relationships between Girl Scouts and the church and the service Girl Scout councils and troops have provided dioceses, parishes and local communities."
In a question-and-answer section, the Girl Scouts said they have "no official relationship" with Planned Parenthood. They also said the way GSUSA is structured does not allow the national office "to prohibit local councils or troops from collaborating with or forming their own local relationships with Planned Parenthood" or other organizations.
Regarding WAGGGS -- an international group based in London that describes itself as advocating for the education of girls and young women and promoting "sexual and reproductive health/rights" -- GSUSA said it "only participates in select WAGGGS programming" and does not have "the ability or purview to criticize, explicitly distance itself from, or change particular advocacy positions within WAGGGS." Its contributions to the organization are only from investment income and not from cookie sales, dues or registration fees.
The Girl Scouts said their national office has a neutral policy on sexuality and contraception but that it doesn't "prohibit individual councils or troops from taking a position or sponsoring programming on human sexuality or other topics" if the troop has parental consent and other approvals.
In a question about Scout membership by youths who identify themselves as transgender, the Girl Scouts said: "Placement of transgender youth is handled on a case-by-case basis, with the welfare and best interests of the child and the members of the troop/group in question a top priority."
Within this resource, the bishops' committee stressed the need for communication between diocesan leaders and local Girl Scout councils as well as using a "memorandum of understanding" which is a form establishing mutual understanding between Girl Scouts and dioceses and parishes stressing that parish troops are "free from any programming or activities contrary to the church's teaching."
Robert McCarty, executive director of the Washington-based National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry in Washington, and an adviser in the dialogue sessions with GSUSA and the bishops' committee, said there has been a long history of secular organizations partnering with the church and the cooperation needs "regular communication and a sense of accountability."
McCarty told Catholic News Service April 8 that Catholics working with secular organizations does not mean "blanket endorsement" of them. He also stressed that the dialogue between the bishops' committee and the Girl Scouts provides "a starting point" to "find common ground and move forward."
He said the Girl Scout leaders had "every right to feel criticized but they did not." Instead, he said they met with Catholic leaders and were willing to change things and even re-do materials.
McCarty recognized that the USCCB resource will not satisfy everyone and said that just that day he received letter from a Catholic who said people in her parish want her to stop leading the parish Girl Scout troop because of claims they had heard of its association with Planned Parenthood.
Gladys Padro-Soler, GSUSA's faith and social issues adviser, told CNS in an April 9 email that Girl Scout leaders "are confident that the USCCB's new Web resource will encourage Girl Scout councils and local dioceses that have experienced trying times during this period to reclaim the collaboration and communication they have always shared."
She noted that GSUSA "believes local issues are best solved with local solutions" and hopes that diocesan offices and Girl Scout councils use "memorandums of understanding" to clearly identify their partnership terms and to also alleviate "concerns a diocese may have about Girl Scouts' service to girls."
"Ultimately," she said, "it is the church's own parishioners that deliver the Girl Scout program and they are empowered both by GSUSA and the church to ensure the program meets their faith's tenets."
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Editors: The USCCB's question and answer guide can be found here: www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/who-we-teach/youth/catholic-scouting-questions.cfm, and also on the Girl Scouts site: www.girlscouts.org/program/basics/faith/catholic_church_relationship.asp.
Oops
Drop the Girl Scouts and start
Still not buying any cookies. Sounds like a bunch of crap the Obama admin would put out.
Not asking that at all. I am just pointing out truths in regard to your faith and your “church”. Which is more important, to keep supporting the collective or to focus more on your personal relationship with God and Jesus? That is the quandary you have to wrestle with.
That is it, just keep looking to the Vatican for the solution. Just as you should commune with the Federal Government for the solution to your personal needs.
I owe my parish support, and I owe the Universal Church respect for the authority Christ gave it to teach, govern, and sanctify the flock. So there is no question of splitting my parish off from its Bishop, or from the Universal Church. That is a bogus move which, of course, is delightful to the Lowerarchy of demons, who exist to split and wreck, divide and kill.
Financially, I try to keep my support as local and as directly personal as possible. This is entirely in line with the Catholic moral principle of Subsidiarity. It does not imply the least schism in the areas of faith and morals, nor of legitimate Church governance.
As I said before, you have to make a careful distinction between an Apostlic Hierarchy and a clerical bureaucracy. The first has by unhesitating loyalty. The latter ... now that's another story.
I don't see why a person would want to reject Mater Ecclesia, the Mother of the Faithful. Look in the last two verses of Revelation 12 to see who she is, and whom she is opposing.
Girls Scouts wants money from the churches. Churches don’t want to piss off liberal parishioners. Result? Moral degradation.
It's a little equivocal to use "the Vatican" as a synonym for "the Church." There was a Church in 33 AD, at Pentecost, the Apostles and their followers and ordained successors, some years before there was a "Vatican," which is to say, an administrative Sstructure located in the capital city. The Church consisted of the faithful Apostles, in union with Peter, to whom was given the keys and the power to open and shut, to bind and loose, to feed the Lord's lambs and sheep, and to strengthen the brethren; and those who gathered around them to receive teaching, and baptism, and the nourishnment of the Body and Blood of Christ, promised in John 6, fulfilled in the New Testament church (1 Corinthians 11).
In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul declares that God has given the Church a structure, a differentiation of roles and offices which He has set in order and which are not identical in everyone:
"And God has appointed in the church
first of all apostles,
second prophets,
third teachers,
then miracles,
then gifts of healing, of helping,
of government, and of different kinds of tongues.
Are all apostles?
Are all prophets?
Are all teachers?
Do all work miracles?"
Good post. A personal relationship with Jesus is just that. If it’s not the same as one’s personal relationship with friends and family here on earth, on that same level of intimacy and reality, it’s just a nice idea at best and deception from the devil at worst.
It’s absolutely true every human being needs a personal relationship with Jesus. I don’t think some have any idea what that means though; to some it appears to only mean simply believing in his existence, “calling him Lord”, saying the sinner’s prayer and going to church when you feel like it.
It’s not, it’s more than that (or it better be), it better be as real a relationship as one has with anyone here on earth or else it’s just a fantasy, and a dangerous one at that.
Definitely want to read this.....finally an answer from the USCCB.
You mean much like Holy Communion to pro-abort politicians?
LOL. What a joke. A two-year decision to....do nothing.
And the USCCB has still made no “official ruling” on the sodomization of the BSA. It’s left up to individual parish priests whether they want to sponsor a Boy Scout troup or not. While there have been many Catholic parishes that have cut ties with the Boy Scouts there have also been many that have pretended nothing happened, business as usual, just waiting for the certain lawsuit to come down when a homosexual predator in their parish troup is charged with molesting a little boy and the parish is sued for a couple of million for not putting a stop to it when they had the chance. This scenario will play out in all religions faiths across the country that continue to sponsor the radical/ anti-Christian Boy Scouts
Reading minds and hearts. That’s quite a trick.
My thoughts exactly. The Mystical Body of Christ vs. a loose collection of atomized “believers.” I’ll stick with Scripture.
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