Report: SF archbishop reassessing morals code for teachers

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:11 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

Report: SF archbishop reassessing morals code for teachers 2015-03-13T16:11:17-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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From The San Francisco Chronicle:

Under pressure from parents, students and staffers at the San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese’s schools, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said Tuesday that he is reexamining strict guidelines he proposed for teachers that would require them to reject homosexuality, use of contraception and other “evil” behavior.

Cordileone also said he is dropping an effort to designate high school teachers as “ministers,” which, under a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, would have removed government-mandated employee protections by placing them solely under church control.

Cordileone ignited a political firestorm this month when he told the nearly 500 people working in archdiocese high schools that he wanted them to “affirm and believe” strict morality clauses in an updated faculty handbook. Many teachers, parents and students objected, saying they interpreted the clauses to mean staffers could be fired for having homosexual relations, using birth control, masturbating or engaging in other actions labeled as “gravely” or “intrinsically” evil.

In an hour-long meeting Tuesday with The Chronicle’s editorial board, Cordileone said he is forming a committee of theology teachers from the archdiocese’s four high schools to go over his proposed guidelines. The committee, he said, will “recommend to me an expanded draft” and “adjust the language to make the statements more readily understandable to a wider leadership.”

“I was surprised at the degree of consternation over this,” Cordileone said. What he originally proposed, he said, was simply a clear reiteration of Catholic morality doctrines concerning behavior.

Read the rest.

UPDATE: The archdiocese has issued a response to the above article. To wit:

In response to the San Francisco Chronicle’s story this evening regarding the meeting today between the Chronicle’s editorial staff and Archbishop Cordileone, Fr. Piderit, Vicar for Administration and Moderator of the Curia, who was present at the meeting today, said:

“The Archbishop has not repealed anything. He is adding explanations, clarifications, and material on Catholic social teaching, via a committee of religion teachers he is establishing. The committee is to expand some areas of the material to be included in the faculty handbook, and clarify other areas by adding material. Nothing already planned to go in is being removed or retracted or withdrawn.

With respect to the use of the word “ministers,” the Archbishop only said that “ministers” is no longer being considered. That is all the Archbishop said. The word currently being used is “ministry.” Nonetheless, the Archbishop did say that he would work hard to find language that satisfies two needs. One is the need to protect the rights of the teachers in the Catholic high schools to have complaints fairly treated. The other is the right of the Archdiocese to run Catholic schools that are faithful to their mission. Language must be identified that meets both needs. Even if a substitute for “ministry” is found, the substitute must guarantee that the teachers in the Catholic archdiocesan high schools promote the Catholic mission of the institutions.”

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