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Bishop McElroy makes appeal on behalf of Catholic education in wake of Mar Vista High sex scandals
Mal Vista
“The Catholic Diocese of San Diego: over 7500 days without a workplace sexual assault!”
On April 13, Edward Aaron Mendoza, a one-time assistant football coach at Imperial Beach’s Mar Vista High School, pleaded not guilty to 20 felony counts stemming from an alleged extended sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student. Just days before, ROTC instructor and Mar Vista substitute teacher Martin Albert Gallegos was arrested for an alleged sexual encounter with a high school senior. And a month before that, Mar Vista tutor Alejandro Rodriguez was charged with having sex with a minor. Now, as the school scrambles to control the damage and the community struggles to assuage the agony, a seemingly unlikely source has emerged to offer both comfort and options: the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.
“It’s no secret that Catholic education has been hurting ever since the 1960s, when we started losing the nuns who provided both solid education and spiritual formation without ever drawing a salary,” says San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy. “Teaching was often the work of their order, part of their religious vows, so payment wasn’t really an issue. But they started getting all sorts of ideas about freedom and exploration and individual rights in the years following the Second Vatican Council. Imagine unionizing when management is the voice of God on earth! Now we have to pay teachers like anybody else, but without a massive tax base to help us do so. And then, of course, we had the sex scandals, with so many children suffering at the hands of Church employees. From then on, the schools have mostly been in free fall, unless they've positioned themselves as hoity-toity prep academies and started charging exclusionary rates."
Logo for the San Diego Diocese’s Pervert Prevention Program
But Catholic schools still have one big advantage, says McElroy. “We’ve had our big sex scandal. It’s in the past. But for the public schools, it’s very much in the present, and not just at Mar Vista. Go ahead and check the numbers. Or Google Charol Shakeshaft."
"In my first public appearance as San Diego’s bishop in 2015,” concludes McElroy, "I vowed to ban anyone who has abused minors from serving in the clergy or from any other form of employment in the diocese. And I’ve kept that vow. Believe me, after your diocese has had to declare bankruptcy and pay out $200 million to settle sex abuse lawsuits, you learn a thing or two about preventative protocols. I promise that your kids are safe with us, precisely because at one point, they weren’t. To the parents and students of Mar Vista, I say this: ‘Isn’t it time to consider the virtues of a Catholic education again? Virtues like not having to deal with sexual predators?’ And who knows, if enough of you sign up, we might be able to hire back some of those nuns.”
Here's something you might be interested in.
Bishop McElroy makes appeal on behalf of Catholic education in wake of Mar Vista High sex scandals
Mal Vista
Bishop McElroy makes appeal on behalf of Catholic education in wake of Mar Vista High sex scandals
Mal Vista
“The Catholic Diocese of San Diego: over 7500 days without a workplace sexual assault!”
On April 13, Edward Aaron Mendoza, a one-time assistant football coach at Imperial Beach’s Mar Vista High School, pleaded not guilty to 20 felony counts stemming from an alleged extended sexual relationship with a 13-year-old student. Just days before, ROTC instructor and Mar Vista substitute teacher Martin Albert Gallegos was arrested for an alleged sexual encounter with a high school senior. And a month before that, Mar Vista tutor Alejandro Rodriguez was charged with having sex with a minor. Now, as the school scrambles to control the damage and the community struggles to assuage the agony, a seemingly unlikely source has emerged to offer both comfort and options: the Catholic Diocese of San Diego.
“It’s no secret that Catholic education has been hurting ever since the 1960s, when we started losing the nuns who provided both solid education and spiritual formation without ever drawing a salary,” says San Diego’s Bishop Robert McElroy. “Teaching was often the work of their order, part of their religious vows, so payment wasn’t really an issue. But they started getting all sorts of ideas about freedom and exploration and individual rights in the years following the Second Vatican Council. Imagine unionizing when management is the voice of God on earth! Now we have to pay teachers like anybody else, but without a massive tax base to help us do so. And then, of course, we had the sex scandals, with so many children suffering at the hands of Church employees. From then on, the schools have mostly been in free fall, unless they've positioned themselves as hoity-toity prep academies and started charging exclusionary rates."
Logo for the San Diego Diocese’s Pervert Prevention Program
But Catholic schools still have one big advantage, says McElroy. “We’ve had our big sex scandal. It’s in the past. But for the public schools, it’s very much in the present, and not just at Mar Vista. Go ahead and check the numbers. Or Google Charol Shakeshaft."
"In my first public appearance as San Diego’s bishop in 2015,” concludes McElroy, "I vowed to ban anyone who has abused minors from serving in the clergy or from any other form of employment in the diocese. And I’ve kept that vow. Believe me, after your diocese has had to declare bankruptcy and pay out $200 million to settle sex abuse lawsuits, you learn a thing or two about preventative protocols. I promise that your kids are safe with us, precisely because at one point, they weren’t. To the parents and students of Mar Vista, I say this: ‘Isn’t it time to consider the virtues of a Catholic education again? Virtues like not having to deal with sexual predators?’ And who knows, if enough of you sign up, we might be able to hire back some of those nuns.”
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