Indianapolis
archbishop revokes Jesuit prep school's Catholic identity
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Indianapolis, Ind., Jun 20, 2019 / 01:49 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Indianapolis
announced Thursday that a local Jesuit high school will no longer be recognized
as a Catholic school, due to a disagreement about the employment of a teacher
who attempted to contract a same-sex marriage.
“All
those who minister in Catholic educational institutions carry out an important
ministry in communicating the fullness of Catholic teaching to students both by
word and action inside and outside the classroom,” the archdiocese said in a
statement Thursday.
“In the
Archdiocese of Indianapolis, every archdiocesan Catholic school and private
Catholic school has been instructed to clearly state in its contracts and
ministerial job descriptions that all ministers must convey and be supportive
of all teachings of the Catholic Church.”
Teachers,
the archdiocese said, are classified as ‘ministers’ because “it is their duty
and privilege to ensure that students receive instruction in Catholic doctrine
and practice. To effectively bear witness to Christ, whether they teach
religion or not, all ministers in their professional and private lives must
convey and be supportive of Catholic Church teaching.”
“Regrettably,
Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School has freely chosen not to enter into such
agreements that protect the important ministry of communicating the fullness of
Catholic teaching to students. Therefore, Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School
will no longer be recognized as a Catholic institution by the Archdiocese of
Indianapolis.”
School
leaders said that despite the archdiocesan decision, “our identity as a
Catholic Jesuit institution remains unchanged,” in a June 20 statement to the school
community.
The
conflict between the school and the archdiocese began with an archdiocesan
request that the contract of a teacher who is in a same-sex marriage not be
renewed.
The
school became aware of the teacher's same-sex marriage in the summer of 2017,
according to a June 20 statement from Fr. Brian
Paulson, SJ, head of the Jesuits' Midwest Province.
Paulson
said the archdiocese requested “two years ago that Brebeuf Jesuit not renew
this teacher’s contract because this teacher’s marital status does not conform
to church doctrine.”
The
school leaders wrote that “After long and prayerful consideration, we
determined that following the Archdiocese’s directive would not only violate
our informed conscience on this particular matter, but also set a concerning
precedent for future interference in the school’s operations and other
governance matters that Brebeuf Jesuit leadership has historically had the sole
right and privilege to address and decide.”
Paulson
stated that Brebeuf Jesuit “respects the primacy of an informed conscience of
members of its community when making moral decisions.”
“We
recognize that at times some people who are associated with our mission make
personal moral decisions at variance with Church doctrine; we do our best to
help them grow in holiness, all of us being loved sinners who desire to follow
Jesus.”
He added
that this problem “cuts to the very heart of what it means to be a Jesuit
institution with responsibilities to both the local and universal church, as
well as for the pastoral care we extend to all members of our Catholic
community.”
“I
recognize this request by Archbishop Charles Thompson to be his prudential
judgment of the application of canon law recognizing his responsibility for
oversight of faith and morals as well as Catholic education in his
archdiocese,” the priest wrote. “I disagree with the necessity and prudence of
this decision.”
The
Jesuits maintain that their school's internal administrative matters should be
made by their own leaders, rather than the local Church.
While the
Code of Canon Law establishes that religious orders, like the Jesuits, “retain
their autonomy in the internal management of their schools,” it also says that
the diocesan bishop has “the right to issue directives concerning the general
regulation of Catholic schools” including those administered by religious
orders.
Canon law
also says that the diocesan bishop “is to be careful that those who are
appointed as teachers of religion in schools, even non-Catholic ones, are
outstanding in true doctrine, in the witness of their Christian life, and in
their teaching ability.”
The Church’s
law adds that the diocesan bishop “has the right to appoint or to approve
teachers of religion and, if religious or moral considerations require it, the
right to remove them or to demand that they be removed.”
The
Archdiocese of Indianapolis policy, which says that all school teachers and
administrators have a responsibility to teach the Catholic faith, is a common
interpretation of those norms in U.S. Catholic dioceses.
The
archdiocesan June 20 statement notes that the archdiocese “recognizes all teachers,
guidance counselors and administrators as ministers.” The 2012 Hosanna Tabor v.
EEOC Supreme Court decision established that religious institutions are free to
require those it recognizes as ministers to uphold religious teachings as a
condition of employment.
The
school's leaders claim that “the Archdiocese of Indianapolis’ direct insertion
into an employment matter of a school governed by a religious order is
unprecedented.”
Fr.
Paulson framed the problem as one of “the governance autonomy regarding
employment decisions of institutions sponsored by the USA Midwest Province of
the Society of Jesus.”
“Our
disagreement is over what we believe is the proper governance autonomy
regarding employment decisions which should be afforded a school sponsored by a
religious order. In this particular case, we disagree regarding the prudential
decision about how the marital status of a valued employee should affect this
teacher’s ongoing employment at Brebeuf Jesuit.”
The
school's leaders added that failing to renew the teacher's contract would cause
“harm” to “our highly capable and qualified teachers and staff.”
“Our
intent has been to do the right thing by the people we employ while preserving
our authority as an independent, Catholic Jesuit school.”
The
leaders noted that they “are prayerfully discerning how best to proceed with
the process of appealing the Archdiocese’s directive.”
Fr.
Paulson said the province will appeal the decision, first through the
archbishop “and, if necessary, [pursuing] hierarchical recourse to the
Vatican.”
Canon law
establishes that “no school, even if it is in fact Catholic, may bear the title
'Catholic school' except by the consent of the competent ecclesiastical
authority,” in this case, the Archbishop of Indianapolis.
Brebeuf
was founded in 1962 by the Society of Jesus. Its 2019 enrollment is 795
students, and tuition at the school is $18,300.
The
Archdiocese of Indianapolis has previously addressed similar issues.
In August
2018, Shelley Fitzgerald, a guidance counselor at Roncalli High School in
Indianapolis, was placed on paid administrative leave. An employee of an
archdiocesan school, Fitzgerald had attempted to contract a same-sex marriage
in 2014.
At that
time, Archbishop Thompson wrote that “the archdiocese’s Catholic
schools are ministries of the Church. School administrators, teachers and
guidance counselors are ministers of the faith who are called to share in the
mission of the Church. No one has a right to a ministerial position, but once
they are called to serve in a ministerial role they must lead by word and
example. As ministers, they must convey and be supportive of the teachings of
the Catholic Church. These expectations are clearly spelled out in school
ministerial job descriptions and contracts, so everyone understands their
obligations.”
He added
that “When a person is not fulfilling their obligations as a minister of the
faith within a school, Church and school leadership address the situation by
working with the person to find a path of accompaniment that will lead to a
resolution in accordance with Church teaching.”
The
archbishop concluded: “Let us pray that everyone will respect and defend the
dignity of all persons as well as the truth about marriage according to God’s
plan and laws.”
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