Photo Credits: Wikimedia
The Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School from Washington, D.C. plans to acknowledge same-sex unions of their alumnae. The school's president emerita Sister Mary Berchmans Hannan announced plans to publish news of same-sex unions alongside news of opposite-sex ones in the alumnae newsletter. This idea may seem as completely normal thing to do because, in reality, people who attended Catholic prep school in their youth may later become attracted to a person of same sex and get married to them. But the idea of Catholic prep school accepting this reality sounded wrong to California resident Sonia Tabizada so she used serious threats attempting to make the school remove same-sex unions from their magazine.
According to Patheos, Sonia Tabizada allegedly left a threatening message on the school's voice mail and the message included the ultimatum, “Remove the f**king gay motherf**kers from your magazine, or I’m going to f**king kill your kids. That’s a promise.” Because this is a serious threat Tabizada ended up in prison after she was charged with obstructing religious exercise by threat and transmitting bomb threats in interstate commerce. She pleaded not guilty and her lawyer tried to defend her stating that the indictment is a little overcharged and pointing out that she did not take any action nor did anything to carry out the threats. Even though her lawyer tried to absolve her, Tabizada did a very serious and dangerous thing by threatening to murder kids.
Tabizada was not the only one to "disagree" with the school's plans about same-sex unions announced in a president's email. Sister Berchmans' email suggested that the Church might be mistaken in the way it responds to homosexuality… but even if it isn’t, it’s still the better choice to treat others with respect and dignity and leave the judging to God. As Patheos reports, some former students felt that the idea of acknowledging same-sex union is threatening to them so they addressed an open letter to Sister Berchmans: "..The false choice you have set up, between embracing the truth of Catholic teaching and loving our LGBTQ sisters and brothers, is already spreading a culture of fear. If Visitation’s leaders will not affirm Catholic teaching, the school cannot promise to be a home for students and teachers who do.."
Even though there is not much to agree with in the former student's open letter to Sister Berchmans, their way to express disagreement is the right one. Tabizada on the other hand chose to make an ultimatum and threaten children. This is unacceptable and she has to be held responsible for her actions.
