I was shocked

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Lutheranteach

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Asked by CAF member to quit my teaching job because I’m not Catholic.

I was a bit shocked to receive this as a private message. I took the name off as I don’t think it’s proper to call someone out publicly. But I did want others opinion. If this is a general consensus I’ll consider it. But I’ve not had a complaint from a teacher, student, student’s parent, the parish priest, the principal, or anyone else. Anyway. Here is the message:

I appreciate your honesty & your love of Jesus, but you must not teach at a Catholic School, as you are truly being dishonest & subverting the teachings of the Catholic Church, which is the Church founded by Jesus Christ, which you do not believe in!

If you truly believe in a church founded by a mere man. Luther, then teach at a Lutheran school & sleep well!

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!
 
I think it depends what you teach. If at any point faith is brought into the picture, there could be a problem. A non-Catholic at a Catholic school should not be trying to convert anyone to their faith.

As long as you aren’t doing that, I really don’t see a problem. What do you teach exactly?
 
Wow, sorry to see such strong prejudice.

It might only make sense if you were teaching Catholicism or secretly proselytizing on the playground. Lutherans are devious that way :hypno:
 
If the parish priest or the principal don’t have a problem, I don’t see a problem. When I was in Catholic school, I was taught by a teacher who wasn’t Catholic. She didn’t teach us the Catholic faith (we had a sister for that) but there wasn’t a problem. Again, like the poster above, unless you’re teaching the Catholic faith, I don’t see a problem because you don’t need to be Catholic to teach math or science.

And bless you for being a teacher.
 
If the priest and principal do not have a problem with your being Lutheran, as obviously they don’t as they hired you, ignore this person.

Peace

Mark+
 
Alexander_Smith said:
I think it depends what you teach. If at any point faith is brought into the picture, there could be a problem. A non-Catholic at a Catholic school should not be trying to convert anyone to their faith.

As long as you aren’t doing that, I really don’t see a problem. What do you teach exactly?
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I do not believe that Lutheranteach has any intention of converting the children s/he teaches. But I do think that non-Catholics should not be teaching Catholic faith. Comparative religion sure but teaching the Catholic faith to Catholic school children (even though there are non Catholic kids there) should be done by people who actually believe the religion they are teaching. I expect that Lutheran and Baptist and any other affiliated school would have the same guide lines.
Kids can spot fake in an instant and a Lutheran teaching the Catholic faith is a fake, there is no inspiration behind it, no belief.
 
zaffiroborant said:
I do not believe that Lutheranteach has any intention of converting the children s/he teaches. But I do think that non-Catholics should not be teaching Catholic faith. Comparative religion sure but teaching the Catholic faith to Catholic school children (even though there are non Catholic kids there) should be done by people who actually believe the religion they are teaching. I expect that Lutheran and Baptist and any other affiliated school would have the same guide lines.
Kids can spot fake in an instant and a Lutheran teaching the Catholic faith is a fake, there is no inspiration behind it, no belief.
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-The Bible you use is a Catholic Document -
Up until the 1880’s every Protestant Bible (not just Catholic Bibles) had 80 books, not 66!

The early church was founded by Hellenistic Jews; naturally, they used the Septuagint. There are passages in the gospels and epistles where Jesus and Paul quote from the Septuagint: 300 of 350 quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament are from the Septuagint. So while the Jews may have settled on the Palestinian canon by the early first century, the Christian church did not.
 
To be clear. I teach language arts and one religion class per week…and only teach those classes where beliefs overlap. Although this year I will be teaching an elective comparing protestant and Catholic beliefs with a Catholic instructor.
 
Lutheranteach said:
To be clear. I teach language arts and one religion class per week…and only teach those classes where beliefs overlap. Although this year I will be teaching an elective comparing protestant and Catholic beliefs with a Catholic instructor.
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Make sure You include :
1700-Massachusetts orders all Roman Catholic priests to leave the colony within three months, or suffer penalty of life imprisonment or execution. New York then passes a similar law.

Reviewing the Act of Settlement of 1701
9 April 2008
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he is prepared to consider repealing those sections of the Act of Settlement of 1701 that prevent Catholics from ascending the throne or marrying into the Royal Family.

Cromwell and the Act Of Settlement 1652
From the Celts to the Famine
By the time the struggle was over, almost two years on, one-quarter of the Catholic population was dead and those found wandering the country orphaned or dispossessed were sold into slavery in the West Indies.

Not only were Catholics forbidden to vote or join the army or navy, but it became illegal to educate a child in the Catholic faith; they could not teach, open their own schools or send their children to be educated abroad. Catholics could neither buy land nor inherit it, other than by the equal division of estates between all sons. There were vast rewards for turning Protes*tant; a male convert was entitled to all his brothers’ inheritance, a female to her husband’s property. Irish language, music and literature were banned, as was the saying of the Mass.
 
Lutheranteach said:
To be clear. I teach language arts and one religion class per week…and only teach those classes where beliefs overlap. Although this year I will be teaching an elective comparing protestant and Catholic beliefs with a Catholic instructor.
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IMO you should not be teaching the class where beliefs overlap. I do believe you will do your best to teach objectively but I just don’t believe you or any other non Catholic should have (nor can you) teach from an objective view when teaching the Catholic faith. Frankly I think it is unreasonable to ask you to do this. Why should a qualified Language Arts teacher (who is Lutheran or Baptist) be expected to teach children the Catholic faith and how can they do that effectively? No teaching the Catholic faith, that is the responsibility of Catholics not those of other faiths. On the other hand the other class you teach from a comparative view point, your non-Catholic belief is just the ticket. IMO you should never teach the Catholic faith, but then neither should secularists, agnostics or atheists or Baptists or Methodists or Presbyterians. This is a problem with Catholic schools, they should NEVER expect or allow non-Catholics to teach the faith.
 
Wouldn’t it all rather depend on the age of the pupils and whether the curriculum aims at indoctrination or critical appraisal?

Surely, with older pupils, the idea that there is an argument and what the argument is about would be rather important from the point of view of understanding their faith in the context of a world of differing beliefs?

Or would it be better to be thoroughly indoctrinated but unable to deal with the argument?
 
dosdog said:
Make sure You include :
1700-Massachusetts orders all Roman Catholic priests to leave the colony within three months, or suffer penalty of life imprisonment or execution. New York then passes a similar law.

Reviewing the Act of Settlement of 1701
9 April 2008
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown says he is prepared to consider repealing those sections of the Act of Settlement of 1701 that prevent Catholics from ascending the throne or marrying into the Royal Family.

Cromwell and the Act Of Settlement 1652
From the Celts to the Famine
By the time the struggle was over, almost two years on, one-quarter of the Catholic population was dead and those found wandering the country orphaned or dispossessed were sold into slavery in the West Indies.

Not only were Catholics forbidden to vote or join the army or navy, but it became illegal to educate a child in the Catholic faith; they could not teach, open their own schools or send their children to be educated abroad. Catholics could neither buy land nor inherit it, other than by the equal division of estates between all sons. There were vast rewards for turning Protes*tant; a male convert was entitled to all his brothers’ inheritance, a female to her husband’s property. Irish language, music and literature were banned, as was the saying of the Mass.
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I fully intend to.
 
zaffiroborant said:
IMO you should not be teaching the class where beliefs overlap. I do believe you will do your best to teach objectively but I just don’t believe you or any other non Catholic should have (nor can you) teach from an objective view when teaching the Catholic faith. Frankly I think it is unreasonable to ask you to do this. Why should a qualified Language Arts teacher (who is Lutheran or Baptist) be expected to teach children the Catholic faith and how can they do that effectively? No teaching the Catholic faith, that is the responsibility of Catholics not those of other faiths. On the other hand the other class you teach from a comparative view point, your non-Catholic belief is just the ticket. IMO you should never teach the Catholic faith, but then neither should secularists, agnostics or atheists or Baptists or Methodists or Presbyterians. This is a problem with Catholic schools, they should NEVER expect or allow non-Catholics to teach the faith.
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I can see your point, and I don’t entirely disagree with you. If it were a situation where it was…go in and teach you know the stuff, right? I’d say. “No. I’m not going to teach this because I won’t do it justice.” But, for better or worse the religion class is rather scripted. If I look at a lesson and think to myself there is not a single thing here I have the slightest hesitation in teaching wholeheartedly I feel good about going into the classroom. When I can’t do that I let my principal know ahead of time and she, or another person takes the class and I work with students who need one-on-one time with a language arts teacher. So, I’ve never had a class where I felt I had to “fake it.”
 
Not having been to a Catholic school, I’m not sure how common it is for non-Catholics to teach in them. Ideally, I think Catholic schools should only be taught by Catholics. It’s the whole reason parents send their children there, right? If the only people teaching at a Catholic school are protestant, is it truly Catholic? A person’s beliefs or lack of them come through in what they say and do, no matter how hard they try to stop it. For instance, a protestant teacher might not be as likely to suggest writing a poem to Mary as a writing assignment. Catholicism isn’t going to be as woven into the fabric of the school when most teachers are not Catholic. That’s the problem with my parish’s school right now - parents are very upset that the teachers are not being true to the Catholic faith. For instance, my friend’s child was given a writing assignment in an English class to talk about something they believe, what the Church says about it, and why they believe differently. If the child did not believe what the Church did, the teacher didn’t really care to help the child understand why their beliefs should match the Church’s.
So, even if you did not teach religion classes, not being Catholic will have an impact. And because you are going to be teaching a religion class, the impact is going to be greater. It sounds like you have already had issues with that and have had to ask the principal to accomodate your lack of belief by making changes to who teaches certain subjects. That’s not an ideal situation.
It may have been shocking to hear that maybe you should not be teaching at a Catholic school, but I do not think the person was out of line for suggesting it.
 
Lutheranteach said:
I can see your point, and I don’t entirely disagree with you. If it were a situation where it was…go in and teach you know the stuff, right? I’d say. “No. I’m not going to teach this because I won’t do it justice.” But, for better or worse the religion class is rather scripted. If I look at a lesson and think to myself there is not a single thing here I have the slightest hesitation in teaching wholeheartedly I feel good about going into the classroom. When I can’t do that I let my principal know ahead of time and she, or another person takes the class and I work with students who need one-on-one time with a language arts teacher. So, I’ve never had a class where I felt I had to “fake it.”
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-Be very careful-
Martin Luther
“On the Jews and Their Lies 1543”
 
I grew up in Catholic Schools. I highly doubt all our teachers were Catholics, although definitely those that taught Religion class are Catholics.

As long as the person (like Lutheranteach) knows to start and end classes with Catholic prayer, thats fine. If he is unwilling or unable, let a student lead the prayer.
 
ConstantineTG said:
I grew up in Catholic Schools. I highly doubt all our teachers were Catholics, although definitely those that taught Religion class are Catholics.

As long as the person (like Lutheranteach) knows to start and end classes with Catholic prayer, thats fine. If he is unwilling or unable, let a student lead the prayer.
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I also went to a Catholic School - First Monday Mass was a requirement
If I went to a Jewish School I would expect Friday Synagogue
 
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