A girl in the US was unable to make her first holy communion because she wanted to wear a suit to the ceremony.
Nine-year-old Cady Mansell from Crown Point, Indiana in the US loves suits and has worn them for occasions like school dances in the past, according to her mum Chris.
There was no question that she would do the same for her first communion, but three days before the event Chris was called into a meeting with Cady’s school principal and a representative of their church.
Chris was told that if her daughter wore a suit to the ceremony, she would have to receive communion privately.
“She can’t sit with her classmates. She can’t be in any group photos. If she wears a suit we have to pretend like my daughter doesn’t exist,” Chris wrote on Facebook at the time.
At a rehearsal a day before the event, the priest took Cady’s father aside and told him to reconsider.
“The priest told us we are raising our daughter wrong and that we should make her dress feminine because she doesn’t have the brain development and maturity to make decisions about how to dress,” wrote Chris in another Facebook post.
This was the final straw for Chris, who confirmed that the family has now left the church as well as the school.
“I sat with Cady and her 8-year-old sister, Annabelle and explained in their terms what the priest said,” Chris told Scary Mommy.
“I told her, ‘The priest doesn’t like the idea that we let you dress how you feel comfortable and beautiful and thinks we should make you be a different girl.
“Since we think so differently, mom and dad think we should all find another school.'”
“Excluding children from their peers over a pair of pants is not how you make lifelong Catholics.
“Making children feel bad about being different is how you create bullies, addicts, suicide victims. I refuse to be a part of it.
“My daughter, her sisters, my family, will not forget this. You think this girl is going to grow up and join a Catholic church? This kind of garbage is why people leave Catholicism and never look back.”
