A Fight to Keep Catholic Schools Catholic
In San Francisco, the archdiocese
is under fire for teaching according to church doctrine.
By Ryan T. Anderson And Leslie Ford
in the Wall Street Journal
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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