Franchising Catholics

Bulletin Column – June 16, 2019

            Ray Kroc did not start McDonald’s. The world-famous hamburger joint was founded by the McDonalds’ brothers. But what made Kroc – and McDonald’s – a worldwide success was franchising. Ray worked with the McDonalds’ brothers to standardize their food, their prices, their quality, and even their buildings so that a McDonald’s in Iowa would look and taste the same as a McDonald’s in Nevada.

            Ray realized that unless there was a high standard among all franchises of the entire chain, they would never be successful. At first, this was such a novel idea that certain individual McDonald’s in California began tinkering with the recipes and even offering different menu options (fried chicken, anyone?). Ray had a conniption when he found out and managed to bring those renegade McDonald’s back into line. Since then, there are almost 38,000 cookie-cutter McDonald’s throughout the world (including one opened in the Vatican in 2017).

            This is indeed a successful business model! You know exactly what you’re getting when you go into a McDonald’s. If you want Chinese food, you won’t find it on the menu. That’s not being “exclusive” – it’s just being McDonald’s.

            So why can we not expect the same from our Catholic institutions? So often, our Catholic schools and parishes teach, preach, and live out a different mission than the universal Catholic Church.

            Case-in-point: back in May, Fairfield Prep held their first annual Fairfield Prep Pride Week. No, it wasn’t about being proud to be a Jesuit (as their sports teams are called). It was about celebrating the LGBT agenda. They had special classes in which they watched videos of Fr. James Martin, a priest who completely misrepresents the Church’s teaching on same-sex attraction. The general message was NOT what the Church teaches (that we love and respect all of our brothers and sisters including those with same-sex attraction, but that homosexuality is a gravely disordered attraction and that such actions are always intrinsically immoral). Rather, the gay lifestyle was celebrated – in the classroom! - as if it were something positive.

            In addition, there is already a club at Fairfield Prep called REIGNS (Respect, Education, and Inclusion of Gay and Non-Binary Students), which supports people who identify as gay, lesbian, non-gender-conforming, etc. Rather than supporting them for chastity and authentic holy friendships (which would be laudable), it is a club to “celebrate diversity” and give these people a platform to normalize this disordered sexuality.

            Back in 2014, I wrote a letter to Prep to object that they invited a speaker to address their community who advocated for same-sex marriage. They wrote back saying that they “do not advocate any policies that are contrary to the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church”. Perhaps they have changed in the intervening five years? Because this recent First Annual Pride Week certainly seems to me – and to the students who brought it to my attention - like an advocacy of something against Church teaching.

            Allow me to be blunt – this is an institution that currently forms over 900 souls in the Catholic Faith. Add that to its alumni and future students and we are considering thousands of boys who have, or will, pass through its halls. These teachers and administrators will have to answer to Christ the Just Judge for the way in which they are corrupting these young souls, leading them away from the Truth. Woe to those who call evil “good”!

            It grieves me to no end to see “Catholic” institutions betraying the Catholic Faith. If we can expect unity among various McDonald’s throughout the world, why can we not expect a unity of thought and purpose among Catholic institutions? The Church continues to shoot herself in the foot if our institutions are teaching anti-Catholic, politically-correct, scandalous material (in the truest sense of the word – a scandal is that which leads another into sin, and this type of teaching definitely legitimizes sinful behavior!).

            We live in difficult times, to be sure. But we don’t need to make it more difficult by division in the Church. If McDonalds’ can unify their service so that we know what we’re getting, how can the Church do any less?