Faith and Justice for Whom? A Critical Discourse Analysis of LGBTQ+ Topics in Catholic Schools

• In Event: Education amid an Era of Rising White Christian Nationalism and Political Extremism

Abstract

This paper discusses a focus group with U.S. Catholic school educators, during which a conversation ensued on LGBTQ+ topics. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the author offers an intertextual analysis of the discussion alongside a document on gender theory, published by the Vatican. The author found a difference between how clergy and teachers were described in their postures of support toward LGBTQ+ people; that theology renders LGBTQ+ identities both visible and invisible; and that contemporary politics in the U.S. influence how Catholic educators relate to topics of gender and sexual identity.

Author

• Jonathon E. Sawyer, University of Colorado - Boulder