Academy of the Holy Names Is Too ‘Woke,’ Not Catholic Enough, Lawsuit Says

Tampa Bay Times ^ | 7/6/21 | Divya Kumar

[marshmallow]

A family who gifted the Tampa school $1.35 million wants their donation rescinded, tuition returned.

At a fundraising gala in 2017, Anthony and Barbara Scarpo announced they had pledged $1.35 million to “our cherished” Academy of the Holy Names, a Catholic school in Tampa attended by their two daughters.

The couple asked for their donation to be used toward the school’s master plan and for scholarships for disadvantaged students. They were named chairs of the academy’s fundraising campaign and the school renamed its auditorium the “Scarpo Family Theatre.”

Four years later, the family and the school are at odds, with the Scarpos alleging fraud and a lack of fidelity to Catholic teaching. With one daughter graduated and the other transferred to a different high school, the couple last week filed a 13-count, 45-page lawsuit asking that their pledge be rescinded.

The school, they charge, has “lost its way” by distancing itself from mainstream Catholicism and embracing a divisive “woke culture” where priority is given to “gender identity, human sexuality and pregnancy termination among other hot button issues.” The lawsuit makes clear the couple’s displeasure with the way the school has dealt with issues of race, saying students are made to feel guilty for being white and having enough money to attend the academy.

In addition to asking for a return of the pledged donation, the lawsuit seeks a tuition refund. It also asks that the academy be stopped from advertising itself as a Catholic institution and for the Florida Catholic Conference to stop accrediting the school.

[ebb tide]

Ping

[Alberta's Child]

Who gives $1.35 million to a church without attaching some serious conditions to the gift?

If you want to support an institution like this, you’re better off setting up an endowment that can be shut down at any time if the institution loses its direction.

[irishjuggler]

You’re 100% right. Nonetheless, I still wish these folks well in their quest to get their money back. So many of these “Catholic” schools are guilty of false advertising, and it’s not right to sell themselves to donors as “Catholic” and then promote anti-Catholic views on homosexuality, abortion etc. It’d be like making a donation to the American Lung Association and then find out that they’re handing out packs of Camels to teens.

[alexander_busek]

Who gives $1.35 million to a church without attaching some serious conditions to the gift? If you want to support an institution like this, you’re better off setting up an endowment that can be shut down at any time if the institution loses its direction.

There may have been tax reasons to donate a lump-sum.

Regards,

[Adder]

promote anti-Catholic views on homosexuality, abortion etc

Sorta like the Pope does.

[Varda]

I hope they get their money back BUT I suspect they’re lying.
This school is run by radical nuns (Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary). It’s probably been a cauldron of leftist promotion for many years.