TGB

I have the YPT and am still technically registered through district as a MB councilor. The problem with moving forward is how sneaky this was done. If they had just been up front from the beginning it wouldn't be personal. When this all started I believe the local church requested only parish members as leaders if possible. I don't believe the CC or SM wanted to tell me straight out so as not to cause a fuss. They still haven't informed other parents that the troop is now considered a catholic youth ministry. The CC went so far as to email the other parents and lied that I filed a complaint against him and the priest with council. The other leaders seem irritated that I even discovered the new rules. What is also of issue to my wife and I is that these new rules are blatantly discriminatory. That goes against our core values. We remain quite conflicted if we pull our son away from his very best friends over the stunt they pulled on me, and the discriminatory rules that we can not abide. To be clear this is not a commentary on Catholicism or even the local church. It seems to all have arisen from the Scouting bankruptcy, liability changes, and the RCC's own legal troubles.

I had no problem taking the Virtus "Protecting God's Children" training. The local archdiocese had in person training in October that I was not going to do because of Covid. Zoom training was available but you needed to register for that through the church and that information was not provided to me by the committee chair nor the church. It was provided to others. When I tried to explain the situation to the committee chair and scout master I was informed that it was too late and that I was off the committee. I actually was removed months earlier and no one informed me. Another parent gave me the number to call at the archdiocese for the training and that person informed me of the new rules. It then became clear why I was not given the information and why they wanted me out. As a result the CC and Scoutmaster and I have had some unfortunate exchanges including me being called and Anti Catholic Bigot. To be clear, prior to these new rules everything was great. I considered the other leaders friends and I'm sure they thought the same of me.

Without reading the rules from the National Catholic Committee on Scouting in April 2020 it's impossible to fully understand what is going on. It states from the beginning that this is a stand against secularism. Catholic teachings are to be incorporated into the scout program and scout leaders are trained as catholic youth ministers, and that's just for starters. In our general area some priest are simply choosing not to sponsor scouting any more, others are enforcing the rules, others for the time being are leaving things as is. At some point it's not even scouting anymore. It's all just a shame and the kids are the ones hurt. This is connected to Scouting's bankruptcy and the church's own legal troubles. The rules state that they can't do this to the Girl Scouts. I can certainly understand any sponsor's concern with liability, but in the end the adults should be more concerned about the kid's and less about pushing some other objective. I'm am and was a fairly quiet, main stream protestant, merit badge councilor, concerned dad, who as a committee person simply wanted to contribute for all the scouts. I understand the perish has the right but that doesn't make it right.

My son's pack and troop had always been welcoming to ALL including me as committee person. Like many troops sponsored by a Catholic church it has recently become a Catholic Youth Ministry. We are not Catholic. The new rules from national committee on catholic scouting and those of the local archdiocese are openly discriminatory. I have been removed from the troop committee but my son is allowed to stay. It has been suggested that we find another troop but no other troop locally is viable. I hate to see my son leave scouting and he is upset about the notion of not being with friends. The future of the troop and how far the new rules will be enforced is apparently up to the parish priest. I'm not so much looking for debate but asking if others have run into this same issue.