Australia: "Married Sunday, Fired Monday, Church Threatens to Dismiss Staff Who Wed Same-Sex Partners," If Same-Sex Marriage Legalized

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So I’m curious if the RCC is going to vet all the employees in every institution they own. I can see them being vigilant with schools, but does that include the lunch ladies and the maintenance people? And what about hospitals? We know that nurses are mentioned by the Bishop; what about lab techs? Doctors? Orderlies? Receptionists? Does that mean that every employee has to be Catholic? Or if not, actually live as a Catholic? Is there a check list somewhere that gives you the rules?
 
ComplineSanFran said:
So I’m curious if the RCC is going to vet all the employees in every institution they own. I can see them being vigilant with schools, but does that include the lunch ladies and the maintenance people? And what about hospitals? We know that nurses are mentioned by the Bishop; what about lab techs? Doctors? Orderlies? Receptionists? Does that mean that every employee has to be Catholic? Or if not, actually live as a Catholic? Is there a check list somewhere that gives you the rules?
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Generally, an employee at a Catholic institution signs an agreement to not act contradictory to Catholic morals as part of their employment agreement.

What this means in legal practice is that a person does not have to be a Catholic, but if they publically violate that agreement, that becomes grounds for termination.

Marriage is a public act, with a public record that can be used to invoke that clause, and defend it in court if necessary.
 
Otar_Mendes said:
So, it’s essentially a Fifth Column? I think FBI and CIA definitely need to take a closer look at this organization and its members .😃
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The FBI nor the CIA can stand up to God, and I will give you one guess as to who will win. God Bless, Memaw
 
BioNerd said:
At some points in history, religious rules were law and I am very thankful that is not the case today.
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Many of our ideas about sex crimes, rape, abortion, prostitution, even curfews, are rooted in a belief of what a “moral” person will (or should) do.

I also wasn’t aware that laws against murder have been repealed/replaced.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
So I’m curious if the RCC is going to vet all the employees in every institution they own. I can see them being vigilant with schools, but does that include the lunch ladies and the maintenance people? And what about hospitals? We know that nurses are mentioned by the Bishop; what about lab techs? Doctors? Orderlies? Receptionists? Does that mean that every employee has to be Catholic? Or if not, actually live as a Catholic? Is there a check list somewhere that gives you the rules?
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Its called a morality clause in an employees contract. But you know that so your red herring questions should rightly be ignored.
 
Brendan said:
Generally, an employee at a Catholic institution signs an agreement to not act contradictory to Catholic morals as part of their employment agreement.

What this means in legal practice is that a person does not have to be a Catholic, but if they publically violate that agreement, that becomes grounds for termination.

Marriage is a public act, with a public record that can be used to invoke that clause, and defend it in court if necessary.
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:thumbsup:nicely put… way nicer than my response!
 
ComplineSanFran said:
So I’m curious if the RCC is going to vet all the employees in every institution they own. I can see them being vigilant with schools, but does that include the lunch ladies and the maintenance people? And what about hospitals? We know that nurses are mentioned by the Bishop; what about lab techs? Doctors? Orderlies? Receptionists? Does that mean that every employee has to be Catholic? Or if not, actually live as a Catholic? Is there a check list somewhere that gives you the rules?
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Usually, when there is a story in the news about employee X being fired from a Catholic institution (usually a school, but some have been direct parish employees recently) one of the arguments against the practice of firing employees is that they are unfairly targeting certain classes of people (usually women) or letting certain practices slide while haphazardly punishing other offenses harshly. For example, in a news story from a couple of years ago, a gay man was fired from a Catholic school after it was learned that he had recently civilly married his partner that he had lived with for many years, and he claimed the school was well aware of it from the beginning. One of the complaints against the school was why they only went after him after he got married, rather than doing something when they learned he was living with his partner (or not hiring him in the first place). So I do think that Catholic institutions can be more consistent in how they apply such morality clauses, which are usually more general in nature.

You do have a point that there should be more specific guidelines on what are punishable offenses when working within Catholic dioceses; I would agree with this as well. However, a couple of years ago in San Francisco, when the archbishop attempted to create an exact list of things that employees of the Catholic schools of the diocese were prevented from doing, there was an uproar from the people saying that the Church was attempting to be too controlling of its employees. So either way the Church can’t win in the realm of public opinion when it comes to situations like this. If I were them I would just ignore the public opinion and unapologetically enforce whatever morality standards they deem appropriate.
 
ComplineSanFran said:
So I’m curious if the RCC is going to vet all the employees in every institution they own. I can see them being vigilant with schools, but does that include the lunch ladies and the maintenance people? And what about hospitals? We know that nurses are mentioned by the Bishop; what about lab techs? Doctors? Orderlies? Receptionists? Does that mean that every employee has to be Catholic? Or if not, actually live as a Catholic? Is there a check list somewhere that gives you the rules?
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See also Morality Clauses Common at Catholic Schools
 
ComplineSanFran said:
I know about morality clauses in schools. They are common but not standard in all RC schools, especially universities. Do you think the cleaning staff has to sign them? I was curious about hospitals. Lots of staff and a wide range of cultures and beliefs. Are they required?
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I don’t think there’s one uniform answer to that question.

A paragraph on the page I linked to says:

In the Diocese of Santa Rosa, Calif., Bishop Robert Vasa sought to have all of the diocese’s teachers sign a document acknowledging that contraception, abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia are offensive to human dignity. When some teachers, parents, and pastors balked, Bishop Vasa decided to wait a year in order to first educate the teachers about the Church’s teachings.

but I believe some clauses specifically talk about termination resulting from such actions. (And presumably in some clauses the list also includes divorce/remarriage, pre-marital sex, and masturbation.)
 
Peter_J said:
I
but I believe some clauses specifically talk about termination resulting from such actions. (And presumably in some clauses the list also includes divorce/remarriage, pre-marital sex, and masturbation.)
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It’s very hard to imagine how institutions can monitor all such activity in all church-owned organizations. Do they even monitor such things in parishes? Does someone have a daily checklist for employees?
 
ComplineSanFran said:
It’s very hard to imagine how institutions can monitor all such activity in all church-owned organizations. Do they even monitor such things in parishes? Does someone have a daily checklist for employees?
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If they’re an up-to-date institution, they could simply use a Soulometer.
 
(Kidding. And I actually don’t think they monitor “all such activity”.)
 
DaddyGirl said:
Kind of ironic.
They are not fired for having a relationship with their girlfriend/boyfriend…but once they make it legal and pledge to love the other forever and in many cases, get married in churches and adopt kids and have families…that’s what gets them fired.
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Marriage is a publicly entered sexual relationship. What makes you think that an open unmarried heterosexual (sexual) relationship by a catholic school teacher would not see that teacher dismissed?
 
ComplineSanFran said:
It’s very hard to imagine how institutions can monitor all such activity in all church-owned organizations. Do they even monitor such things in parishes? Does someone have a daily checklist for employees?
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It’s not a matter of monitoring - just a matter of (1) asking for acceptable behaviour in public; and (2) dealing with unacceptable public behaviour if /when it arises.
 
Rau said:
It’s not a matter of monitoring - just a matter of (1) asking for acceptable behaviour in public; and (2) dealing with unacceptable public behaviour if /when it arises.
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I would say (1) asking for acceptable behaviour -]in public/-]; and (2) dealing with unacceptable public behaviour if /when it arises.
 
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