A bishop warns about Girl Scouts

The auxiliary bishop of Denver, James Conley, wrote a piece on the Archdiocese of Denver website concerning Girl Scouts.  It has all the right language concerning all the good scouting does, the long association between many parishes and scouting, etc, but Bishop Conley notes that there are also very serious reasons for concern regarding the Girl Scouts USA:

Over the past year though, a growing number of Catholic parents and youth ministers have shared a concern with me.  And it deserves some discussion.

Their unease involves the Girl Scouts, and especially the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS)…….

 …what happens at the international and national levels of Scouting has an important trickle-down effect. This is exactly why “pro-choice” organizations have worked to develop connections with the Scouting movement. 

Parents would be wise to spend some serious time browsing the WAGGGS (www.wagggsworld.org) and GSUSA websites, following the links they find there, and examining for themselves how these organizations deal with sexuality, “choice” and reproductive issues. It may be a sobering experience.

As one youth minister recently wrote:

“It’s hard to imagine that a girl who remains involved with Girl Scouts into young adulthood won’t eventually learn of the connections her organization has with ‘pro-choice’, pro-contraception and ‘reproductive freedom’ groups. 

Having been influenced by GSUSA, she’ll be more receptive to this agenda.  And if she was introduced to GSUSA through her parents and her local parish, then that will inevitably create contradictions between her Catholic faith and her Scouting experience.”

The many good things offered by Girl Scouting in Colorado deserve praise from the Catholic community. Scouting and the Church have always had, and hopefully will continue to have for many years, a very positive relationship.

Parents need to remain alert to the content of their daughters’ activities. And Catholics involved in the Girl Scouting movement should m

But parents, as the primary educators of their children, have every right to insist that their beliefs, especially their moral and religious beliefs, be respected—not undermined—by the organizations to which they entrust their children. 

Parents need to remain alert to the content of their daughters’ activities. And Catholics involved in the Girl Scouting movement should make it clear to leadership that Scouting is only a means to an end—the proper formation of young character.

It’s not an end in itself; and should Scouting ever fail in that proper formation, other groups can be found or formed to take its place.

I’d say that’s at least something of a threat, and well it should be.  While I’m certain most local Girl Scout troops are just made up of moms and daughters trying to bond and develop some skills, the national and international Girl Scouts organizations have severely lost their way, and become dominated by radical feminist agendas, especially supporting all the sacred sexual shibolleths of the left – abortion, contraception, deviant sexuality, etc.  As the good bishop points out, there are many other organizations that fulfill similar roles to Girl Scouts, without agendas contrary to the Faith.  I especially like the Little Flowers girls club, named after God’s own Little Flower.  I strongly question whether Catholic parishes should continue in their relations with the Girl Scouts, for all the good they do, because of the increasing antipathy of the national and international organizations to the morality of the Faith.