Pamphlet about morals upsets parents at San Francisco Catholic elementary school

Vivian Ho
San Francisco Chronicle
February 18, 2015

In the latest controversy to strike the Catholic Church in San Francisco, elementary school students at the Star of the Sea School were given pamphlets referring to sexual topics that some parents say were inappropriate and far too advanced for their children.

At the Inner Richmond school whose parish recently made news when its pastor banned girls from acting as altar servers at Mass, copies of “The Examination of Conscience and Catholic Doctrine” were passed out to students in second through sixth grades about two weeks ago, just before confession, parents and students said.

They asked questions such as, “Did I perform impure acts by myself (masturbation) or with another (adultery, fornication and sodomy)?” and, “Did I practice artificial birth control or was I or my spouse prematurely sterilized (tubal ligation or vasectomy)?” as well as, “Have I had or advised anyone to have an abortion?”

“It was very careless on their behalf, and you would expect anyone who works around children to be much more careful,” said parent Siobhan McFeeney, who has four children at the school. “You should never show this to a 9-year-old.”

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of San Francisco did not return messages for comment, and the Rev. Joseph Illo, pastor at Star of the Sea Church, could not be reached.

McFeeney said some teachers realized what the pamphlets contained and grabbed them before her child in the second grade could read one. But her fourth-grade daughter, Sinead Trevino, said she had read them. They were being handed out by Father Patrick Driscoll, the parish’s parochial vicar, she said.

“I read the first few lines and I thought, 'What does that mean?’” she said. “They looked like they were things you weren’t supposed to do — the Commandments. But I don’t think they were.”

The older students were just as confused, and were talking about them at recess and getting “really grossed out,” said sixth-grader Riley Brooks, 11.

“There was something about masturbation,” he said. “Pretty sure abortion was on there, but I can’t remember. And sodomy. I don’t know what that means.”

His mother, Christy Brooks, said she found it ironic.

“There’s something on there saying, 'Did I deliberately look at impure television or Internet,’ and I feel like they have actually given my children impure content,” she said. “It’s not appropriate for children and anybody who thinks otherwise doesn’t belong around children.” Brooks said she understands that these are the teachings of the Catholic Church and that her children would eventually learn about these topics. But she said these pamphlets were just the latest in questionable actions made by the clergy running the parish and the school. Illo’s exclusion of girls from serving at the altar came after he forbade non-Catholic students from receiving blessings while the Catholic students took Communion, Brooks said. He reinstated the option after parents complained about his decision.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has also recently come under protests for introducing a new “morality document" for Catholic high school faculty and staff that would require them to “affirm and believe” that sex outside of marriage and homosexual relations are “gravely evil.”