Pro-choice groups barred from church schools

A prominent bishop in Belize has issued a directive to Catholic schools to ban groups that oppose the Church’s pro-life message, writes Jon Stibbs.

Bishop Dorick Wright of Belize City and Belmopan named a Red Cross programme, the Belize Family Life Association (BFLA), the United Belize Advocacy Movement and the National Aids Commission, which he said “foster programmes that ultimately undermine our Catholic values”.

“Organisations whose activities and positions are actively opposed to the moral teachings of the Catholic Church, and which endanger the souls of the People of God, cannot be welcomed under any circumstances in our schools,” said the bishop. The letter, dated 3 March, warned against BFLA – the Belize arm of pro-choice group Planned Parenthood – which it said proposed an “agenda of sodomy, abortion, and sexual gender redefinition [and] is seeking to radically change Belize’s Christian character”.