(LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio has falsely accused a self-proclaimed “independent school in the Catholic tradition” of misrepresenting “their Catholic status to the public” in an attempt to discourage displaced schoolchildren from attending the academy.

After The Atonement Catholic Academy announced May 31 that it would soon close due to financial unsustainability, Lumen Christi Academy — an initiative of the Sanctus Ranch founders and within driving distance from Atonement — reportedly contacted parents and teachers of Atonement Catholic Academy to invite them to the K-12 “microschool,” which seeks to provide “an authentically Catholic classical education.”

On Monday, the Archdiocese of San Antonio consequently warned parents against having their children attend Lumen Christi Academy because it is not approved by the archdiocese. 

“It is unfortunate that the situation with Sanctus Ranch has devolved to this point, but Sanctus Ranch, the Spiritual Retreat Foundation, and Lumen Christi Academy cannot be allowed to misrepresent their Catholic status to the public, while soliciting and accepting donations from the people of God in the Archdiocese of San Antonio,” García-Siller wrote. 

Contrary to the archbishop’s claim, Lumen Christi Academy has made very clear that it is an “independent” school, a description found repeatedly throughout its website. In a prominent message on its homepage, Lumen Christi defends its “decision to remain outside both diocesan control and government accreditation” as “a moral imperative and spiritual necessity.”

Nevertheless, the archbishop claimed that the school is misleading Catholics, writing, “I cannot and will not be silent and witness the people of God being misled by those who are acting independently of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.”

Lumen Christi, in response, defended its canonical integrity, pointing out that it “has never represented itself as an institution operating under diocesan jurisdiction.” 

The academy further noted that Canon 215 “guarantees the faithful the right to ‘found and direct associations for purposes of charity or piety or for the promotion of the Christian vocation in the world,’” even if such associations are not endorsed by an ecclesiastical authority.

“The burden of proof lies with ecclesiastical authority to demonstrate that such initiatives misrepresent Catholic identity or doctrine,” Lumen Christi Academy wrote.

The academy emphasizes not only that it “profess(es) the full teachings of the Catholic Church,” but that it strives to go above and beyond the standards of diocesan Catholic schools in its fidelity to Catholic magisterial teaching. 

For example, in its critique of the “Catholic” education of “most diocesan schools,” it has pointed out that “traditional Catholic teaching has been replaced with watered-down modernist interpretations that avoid challenging secular culture.”

Moreover, faculty members of diocesan schools “often openly contradict Church teaching on marriage, sexuality, and the sanctity of life,” and the Mass is often “marginalized,” being made available to the students only “occasionally,” if at all.

Writer and liturgist Dr. Peter Kwasniewski defended Lumen Christi Academy in a statement posted to his Facebook page on Tuesday:

Lumen Christi Academy, and Sanctus Ranch where it is located, have come under renewed attack by the Archdiocese of San Antonio and now by the Ordinariate. As this excellent and comprehensive response shows, the attacks are inaccurate and therefore unjust. Lumen Christi Academy, which I have visited personally, is an exemplary private classical Catholic school. Parents of children who have been suddenly stranded by the closure of the Catholic school the children had been attending should read this response, go visit LCA in person, use their own intelligence and make up their own minds as befits mature lay Christians.

Earlier this year, Dan Sevigny, founder of Sanctus Ranch, explained to John-Henry Westen some of the challenges his retreat center — which is across the road from Lumen Christi Academy — has faced since García-Siller’s attempt to prohibit Catholics from attending it.