Jewish Pupils Stigmatized by Catechism Classes in District Schools, Canadian Mother Charges

Jewish and other non-Catholic pupils are discriminated against and stigmatized by being forced to linger in corridors when the catechism is taught in local public schools, a Jewish mother here has charged.

Natania Etienne, whose two children attend elementary schools in the French-speaking District 13 in this Canadian Maritime Province city of 40,000, said the situation was the equivalent of forcing Jewish pupils to “go to the back of the bus” the way “the Negroes were treated in the southern United States,” according to a report in the Moncton Times-Transcript.

She contended that children of Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Jehovah’s Witnesses and other faiths were being denied “basic religious freedom.” They should have alternative courses during periods of catechism teaching, Mrs. Etienne said. She noted that children in grades one through six are being given alternative courses during catechism periods in the district schools, but that “concession” was permitted by school district officials only after “a bitterly fought battle” a few years ago.

At that time, she said, she received telephone threats and pressure was put on her two children by other pupils. After the sixth grade, non-Catholic children have the “choice” of sitting in the catechism class or standing in the halls.

ANTI-SEMITISM IN TEXTBOOKS

Yvon Ouellette, superintendent of District 13, said he did not know of any students being forced to stand in the halls during catechism class. They could “go to the library or take other courses if they don’t take catechism,” he said according to the Times-Transcript report.

The newspaper quoted a charge by Donald Jubas, president of the B’nai B’rith of Canada, that the textbooks used in the catechism courses are “anti-Jewish” in nature. He said Catholic students were being taught that Jews were guilty of deicide and this created hostility between the two groups of students.

Msgr. Donat Chiasson, the Archbishop of Moncton, responded that the Gospel cannot be changed, the Times-Transcript reported. He said the Gospel taught that the Jewish people “took a decision” on the death of Jesus and “we cannot erase that from the Gospel.” Chiasson stressed that he was not implying that the Jewish people were “more responsible” than other participants, such as the Roman army, but insisted that the Jewish part in the crucifixion is still part of the Gospels.

Chiasson said that in any event teaching the catechism has not been an “integral” part of the curriculum for many years but a voluntary program taught only “outside the minimum hours of classroom time.”

But Rabbi Michael Wolff of the Tiferes Israel Synagogue here, said that forcing pupils to leave a classroom when the catechism is taught “stigmatizes” those pupils. He charged that District 13 officials are putting “a lot of pressure” on non-Christian students both by teaching the catechism and refusing to provide alternative courses on the junior highschool and highschool levels.