Catholic School Faces Complaint After Bisexual Student Dies by Suicide; And More News
Stephanie Stile, right, with her daughter, Vera Marie, before their deaths
1) Stephanie Stile’s daughter, Vera Marie Appedu, died by suicide in December 2020 at the age of 14 after facing bullying at Moore Catholic High School, Staten Island, New York, because she had recently come out as bisexual. Stile herself later died by suicide last month, which many attribute to the difficulties she had after her daughter’s death. Before Stile died, however, she had filed a complaint against the school and the Archdiocese of New York which, according to SILive.com, was “alleging negligence and failure to stop the harassment endured by Vera Marie.” The media outlet reports the case remains active after Stile’s death. A spokesperson for the archdiocese, T.J. McCormack, refused to comment on the matter.
2) More than 50 students at Wahlert Catholic High School,Dubuque, Iowa, joined schools statewide in a walkout to protest anti-LGBTQ+ legislation targeting their queer peers, which would include restrictions on curricula related to gender and sexuality and educators’ support for transgender students’ social transitions, according to the Telegraph Herald.
3) Fr. Tony Anatrella, a French priest considered a key figure in the Vatican’s ban on gay men being admitted to seminaries and a proponent of conversion therapy, was banned from public ministry by Paris’ Archbishop Philippe Marsset after a church investigation found Anatrella had abused young men he was counseling, reported UCA News.
4) The New York Radio Awards gave its Gold Award in Social Issues to a documentary, “Falsely Accused,” about a gay former priest, Bernard Lynch, who has been an outspoken LGBTQ+ advocate. The documentary is about accusations Lynch faced of child sexual abuse, for which we was found fully innocent. To learn more, visit The Clare Herald.
5) The Nebraska Catholic Conference opposed legislation to provide employment non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ workers. Marion Miner, associate director of pro-life and family policy for the Conference, claimed in testimony that Legislative Bill 169 treats LGBTQ-negative people “as bad actors in need of corrective government coercion,” reported the Nebraska Examiner.
—Robert Shine (he/him), New Ways Ministry, April 22, 2023
This laundry list of abuses and hypocrisy is an indictment of the Church . The unfortunate suicide of Vera Marie Stile who attended Countess Moore H.S. (The original name) is indicative of ignoring abuse by other students when doing and saying the supportive things for Ms Stile was a bridge too far. A French priest railing against gay men in the priesthood only to be found to be an abuser himself is the zenith of hypocrisy. Students in Iowa walking out of class in protest of LGBT student’s treatment is a glimmer of hope. The Church’s obsession with human sexuality and all its facets will be its undoing. That may have factored into Fr. Bernard Lynch, an LGBT advocate, being falsely accused of sexual misconduct. There is a point when such pontification is ignored.
Vera Marie’s death by suicide because of bullying and her mother’s is a disgrace to the failure and ignorance of the people of God.