The other interesting part is that we have a female teacher who was (at least) baptized Roman Catholic but apparently worships in a non-denominational church. But she also received Our Lord at school Masses. She claims she told them she wasn't Catholic up front, but what was she doing receiving Holy Communion? Didn't the school pick up on that inconsistency and set her straight then? Now, she must choose. Either she's Catholic or not. If she was baptized but not practicing, I wonder why the school hired her. It's okay to hire non-Catholics, but an ex-Catholic, and one who's not sure if she is or not, sounds like a bad idea and can lead to confusion and scandal, which is where the school ended up with her anyway. She doesn't feel like she did anything wrong. Poor catechesis, eh?
Needless to say the woman is suing in court and in an EEOC case. I don't think she'll win. This is a standard religious school hiring right.
The conflict threw LaFortune into an emotional tailspin.
She said she met again with [Deacon Patrick] Cunningham, who explained that his stance wasn't a personal attack, but rather a reflection of God's laws, which are non-negotiable.
“I then told him I would be having a lawyer or attorney soon,” LaFortune said.
She added that she loved her students, felt she was doing nothing wrong and would not leave the all-boys school without a fight.
Raised in the Catholic faith, LaFortune had moved with her fiance to a nondenominational church before the conflict at the school.
The conflict “just sort of turned me off (of the religion) more,” she said. “It felt really archaic. I think they were overlooking what I had to offer the boys.”
Her sister flew down early from Boston to help the distraught bride with last-minute obligations, including altering her wedding dress and choosing flowers for the ceremony in Fredericksburg. Meanwhile, LaFortune brainstormed for mitigating circumstances that could temper the deacon's decree.
The high school regularly hires non-Catholic employees. So LaFortune told her employers that she no longer attended a Catholic church. Perhaps this would make her immune to Catholic strictures.
It did not.
“Do you know what the definition of scandal is?” [School president Brother Peter] Pontolillo said in a phone interview. “If I present myself as Catholic to an institution that's Catholic, and I practice that Catholicism in the institution by attending school Masses and receiving communion and then suddenly make a decision that is published that (I am) now going to go against that Catholicism.”
According to both LaFortune and Pontolillo, at one point, the school president asked LaFortune if she went to church every Sunday. She told him she did not.
“No wonder you don't understand,” Pontolillo said. “You are not churched.”
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2 comments:
This is tragic and could probably have been prevented with better communication. I am aware of a similar situation in which one party called in the media and it became a public circus which excluded any idea of a pastoral consideration. There are any number of special circumstances among Catholic school teachers, but they are not publicized in the school paper. The hands of the administration may be been tied. I know of situation which pastors and/or others attempted to handle in a very pastoral way, but when they situations hit the press they were demonized. (Another example occurs when an entirely unqualified person requests a sponsor certificate and is not give one.)
I know of a preschool teacher at a catholic school/church in Bellevue, Nebraska who has been having an affair for a year (starting in the 2007-08 school year). She filed for divorce from her husband last summer but it isn't final yet. She has been openly out and about with her boyfriend/affair partner and is still teaching at the school. The principal and the church pastor are both aware of the adultery, and yet nothing has been done. She signed a contract that says that she understands her conduct has an effect on the reputation of the school/church, so they do have the legal right to fire her, but they don't.
It's no wonder the alter boy abuse scandals went on for so long. Even when the people in charge know that something isn't right, they won't do anything about it.
Wait until this case hits the media. They're regret not handling it "pastorally."
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