Jesuit school stripped of Catholic status over display of Pride and Black Lives Matter flags

A Jesuit school in Worcester, Massachusetts can no longer identify as a Catholic institution due to its display of a rainbow "Pride" flag and a "Black Lives Matter" flag.

Boston 25 News reports that the Diocese of Worcester has stripped the local Nativity School of its Catholic status over the display of both flags, which it says go against Catholic teachings.

"These symbols embody specific agendas or ideologies [that] contradict Catholic social and moral teaching," Bishop Robert McManus said in justifying his decision. "It is my contention that the ‘Gay Pride’ flag represents support of gay marriage and actively living a LGBTQ+ lifestyle."

Thomas McKenney, the president of the Nativity School, has defended flying the flags as showing "support for making our communities more just and inclusive" and showing that "all are welcome at Nativity."

READ MORE: School board member's son ignites an uproar after urging people to shoot Black people 'for fun' in viral video

The school and the Diocese have been at odds over the flags since this past March, when McManus ordered the school to remove them after becoming aware of their existence, and the Bishop said he had no choice but to strip the school of its Catholic status.

“Despite my insistence that the school administration remove these flags because of the confusion and the properly theological scandal that they do and can promote, they refuse to do so," he said. "This leaves me no other option but to take canonical action.”