Girl Scouts of Western Ohio (GSWO) wants more than just cookie sales right now; they’re asking for signatures on an open letter to Cincinnati’s new archbishop.
“We welcome you to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati,” reads an open letter addressed to Archbishop-designate Robert Casey. “We ask your help with an urgent issue affecting thousands of Catholic Girl Scouts.”
It all started in October when Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr announced the Archdiocese of Cincinnati would be ending its relationship with the Girl Scouts of the United States of America, due to their “impoverished worldview regarding gender and sexuality.”
In a letter published on Oct. 28 and shared with the roughly 500,000 Catholics in the region, Schnurr said every Girl Scout troop currently based on any Catholic campus in Greater Cincinnati would be expected to convert to an American Heritage Girls troop, find another location to meet or disband, with a deadline of December 2025.
“This decision is devastating to so many of the 200 local Catholic Girl Scout troops and nearly 4,000 local Catholic Girl Scouts,” reads the GSWO open letter. “We want to continue to meet at our parishes. Troops have already been forced to move meetings to protestant churches, city halls, and anywhere that will take us.”
Schnurr’s reason for the ultimatum? The Girl Scouts organization had “contributed to normalizing a sexual and gender ideology contrary to the Catholic understanding of the human person made male and female in the image and likeness of God.”
The gender grievance stems from Girl Scouts’ inclusive approach to membership for transgender girls.
“Placement of transgender youth is handled on a case-by-case basis, with the welfare and best interests of the child and the members of the troop/group in question a top priority,” reads the Girl Scouts’ website. “If the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe.”
GSWO has been a specific source of frustration for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as early as 2016. The two groups signed a “Memorandum of Understanding,” which laid the ground rules for their relationship. The Girls Scouts were told to adhere to several rules, including “maintain regular, ongoing communications with the Archdiocese of Cincinnati,” “respect the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church” and “recognize and honor the principle that religious instruction is the responsibility of parents and religious leaders,” among other things.
After their Memorandum of Understanding expired in 2016, the archdiocese began investigating GSWO’s social media presence. The archdiocese took issue with a post promoting Phoebe Hall, founder of Glitterary, a digital literary magazine for LGBTQ+ youth, as well as a post sharing information related to the LGBTQ+ Pride Month Fun patch.
In November 2023, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati requested that GSWO “cease promotion of activities, resources, badges and awards repugnant to Catholic teaching.”
By 2024, Schnurr had endorsed American Heritage Girls, an explicitly Christian alternative to the Girl Scouts, writing “AHG is openly Christ-centered and dedicated to helping girls respond to God’s call to grow in purity, service, stewardship and integrity.”
Founded in 1995, Heritage Girls is centered around four categories: Purity, Service, Stewardship and Integrity. In the “Purity,” section it states: “We are to reserve sexual activity to the sanctity of marriage; a lifelong commitment before God between a man and a woman.”
On the organization’s website, which features extracts from their podcast, Raising Godly Girls, one episode is titled “Equipping Your Girl Against Cultural Witchcraft This Halloween.” In the description, Heritage Girls states: “Join us as we explore how witchcraft, once considered fringe or fictional, is now being normalized in popular culture, drawing in girls from all walks of life.”
Archbishop Schnurr reiterated his support for AHG in his Oct. 28 letter declaring an end to the relationship between the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and GSWO.
“Girl Scouts of Western Ohio is – and always has been – a secular organization that welcomes girls of all faiths,” GSWO said in response to Schnurr’s Oct. 28 letter. “Our membership includes girls and families of many faith traditions, and we believe that a part of girls’ healthy development is encouraging girls in their spiritual journey, through partnerships with their faith communities.”
Then, on Feb. 12, Archbishop Schnurr announced his resignation from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Schnurr was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer in May 2024. Pope Francis appointed Reverend Robert Casey, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, as Schnurr’s successor.
Speaking to WCPO on LGBTQIA+ issues, Casey said, “All we have to do is look within our own families and we see that we are a very diverse family of God and what needs to happen I hope is the ability to build bridges.”
With Casey at the helm of the archdiocese, GSWO hopes the bridge between the two organizations may be repaired.
“As leaders, we know we are Catholic ministers and that it is our responsibility to follow and teach the Catholic faith and help our girls grow to be strong, kind, compassionate Catholic women,” GSWO wrote to Casey. “It is Girl Scouts’ strong programming content that gives us the ability to do that in line with the Church’s teachings.”
GSWO is asking for signatures on the open letter to Casey, which the organization said will be delivered in March.
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This article appears in Feb 19 – Mar 4, 2025.