In San Francisco, the archdiocese is under fire for teaching according to church doctrine.
San Franciscans are currently debating a simple question: Should the
government respect the right of Catholic schools to be authentically
Catholic?
San Francisco Archbishop
Salvatore Cordileone
thinks so. But eight California senators and assemblymen sent the
archbishop a letter last month, saying that his actions in issuing new
faculty guidelines “foment a discriminatory environment in the
communities we serve.” On Feb. 23, two of the signers even asked the
California Assembly Labor and Employment Committee and the Assembly
Judiciary Committee to investigate the archdiocese’s actions.
Here’s
the back story. During contract renegotiations with nearly 500 staff
members last month, the archdiocese issued an updated faculty guide for
its Catholic high schools. The addendum introduced three new
clauses—which staff members are required to “affirm and
believe”—denouncing masturbation, pornography, same-sex marriage,
contraception and other issues that, in line with Catholic teaching, are
described as “gravely evil.”
These beliefs shouldn’t surprise
anyone familiar with the Catholic Church—the 2,000-year-old institution
has clearly defined its moral teachings throughout the years. Yet
lawmakers objected, contending in a Feb. 17
letter to the archdiocese that the new guide is “divisive.” They
asserted that by spelling out the teachings of the Catholic Church and
requiring high-school staff to not publicly undermine those teachings,
teachers could be dismissed for private decisions not in accord with
Catholic teaching.
The archbishop responded, calling the idea that the clauses could apply to an employee’s private life a “falsehood” in a Feb. 19 letter.
Then he put a question to the lawmakers: “Would you hire a campaign
manager who advocates policies contrary to those that you stand for, and
who shows disrespect toward you and the Democratic Party in general?”
Of course they wouldn’t, and Archbishop Cordileone summed up the
problem: “I respect your right to employ or not employ whomever you wish
to advance your mission. I simply ask the same respect from you.”
Archbishop Cordileone also explained that the mission of Catholic
education is to ensure that students receive a complete education:
intellectually, spiritually and morally. If teachers are to fulfill this
goal, they must be consistent in what they teach in the classroom and
in what they advocate in the public square.
American business
and civic institutions frequently make choices to remain true to
principles even when it is unfashionable or may hurt their bottom
line—for example, CVS last year pulled cigarettes from shelves, calling
the sale of tobacco “inconsistent with our purpose—helping people on
their path to better health.” This choice is even more essential for
religious schools, which must be able to have teachers who support—or at
least don’t publicly attack—the school’s beliefs. Lawmakers shouldn’t
be using threats of governmental investigation to control those
decisions.
Yet similar coercion is taking place throughout the country. Last
year, the New England Association of Schools and Colleges opened an
investigation into Gordon College—a Christian school. The association
gave the college a year to review its conduct standards, which ask all
members of the Gordon community to live by the Christian virtue of
chastity—with the implication that Gordon could be at risk of losing
accreditation. Gordon is currently undergoing that internal review and
says it plans to submit a report later this year.
Elsewhere, the
Department of Health and Human Services’ contraception mandate has
created a comparable threat for Notre Dame and Wheaton College—both of
which are plaintiffs in ongoing lawsuits. That mandate forces religious
schools to provide and pay for coverage of abortion-inducing drugs,
contraception and sterilization regardless of a school’s religious
objection. The law would compel these colleges either to stop offering
health insurance altogether—and incur steep fines—or to violate their
deeply held beliefs.
In January, Washington, D.C., Mayor
Muriel Bowser
signed the euphemistically titled “Human Rights Amendment Act.”
The bill would compel Washington’s private religious schools to violate
their beliefs about human sexuality by recognizing LGBT student groups
or hosting a “gay pride” day on campus. The bill is currently under
congressional review.
Provided private schools meet basic
standards of safety and education, the government shouldn’t be in the
business of coercing them to conform to someone else’s moral beliefs.
After all, many families send their children to private schools
precisely to escape government moral indoctrination. It is because of
these schools’ distinctive creeds that families sacrifice to afford
sending their children to private religious schools. Government
officials should respect the ability of such schools to witness to their
faith.
This is why public policy should protect Archbishop
Cordileone’s decision to ensure that Catholic high schools retain an
authentic Catholic identity. The revisions to the school handbook foster
an equilibrium between institutional integrity and personal liberties.
This freedom is exactly what allows all Americans—in whichever school
they choose to attend—to live in a diverse and civil public sphere.
Mr. Anderson
is the
William E. Simon
Fellow and
Mrs. Ford
a research assistant in the Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.
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