Lawmakers urge S.F. archbishop to withdraw teacher morality clauses

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unstoppable_II said:
It was answered in 1776. See my post #17.
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I saw that. You have to remember that man’s right to life existed long before it was mentioned in the Declaration of Independence.

There really should be no question about the inclusion of rights within the Constitution. The Constitution grants no rights. It protects existing rights by limiting the government.
 
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/i...A_CNA500x320_US_Catholic_News_11_13_12.jpgSan Francisco, Calif., Feb 20, 2015 / 03:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Politicians have targeted San Francisco Catholic schools’ teacher standards, but Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone says they are a matter of Catholic mission and common sense.

“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?” he wrote in his reply to eight state legislators who had criticized Catholic standards for school employees.

The archbishop suggested a hypothetical situation in which Democratic politicians employ a “brilliant campaign manager,” though a Republican, who is willing to work for them and not speak or act contrary to his employers or his employers’ political party.

“Now let’s say that this campaign manager you hired, despite promises to the contrary, starts speaking critically of your party and favorably of your running opponent, and so you decide to fire the person,” the archbishop continued in a Feb. 19 letter. He suggested this firing would be done not for hatred of Republicans but because the employee “violated the trust given to you and acted contrary to your mission.”

The Archdiocese of San Francisco on Feb. 3 announced additions and clarifications to the faculty and staff handbooks for the archdiocese’s four high schools, as well as proposed new morals clauses for teacher contracts that would define teachers as having a ministerial role. The archdiocese said the changes to the handbook and contract do not contain anything new but are intended to “clarify existing expectations that Catholic teachers in their professional and public lives uphold Catholic teaching.”

The changes focus on sexual morality and religious practice due to prevalent confusion about the Church’s stance, Archbishop Cordileone said in early February.

But political protests and threats – not confusion – greeted the changes.

“What is happening is a direct challenge to the teaching authority of the Church and its right to teach its doctrine by public authorities in direct conflict with the First Amendment,” Bill May, president of the California-based Catholics for the Common Good, told CNA Feb. 19.

Eight California state legislators, in a Feb. 17 letter to Archbishop Cordileone, called on him to withdraw the morality clauses. Although they acknowledged he has “discretion over working conditions” at the schools, they claimed the standard for high school staff and faculty “infringes on the personal freedoms of their employees” and “sends an alarming message of intolerance to youth.”

The legislators claimed the standards “conflict with settled areas of law” and “foment a discriminatory environment” in the community. They suggested that religious freedom exemptions in federal law are being used as “a tool for discrimination.”

feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/catholicnewsagency/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
http://forums.catholic-questions.or...r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews/~4/Rlq54DMyTmI

Full article…
 
Not sure what the position of the teachers union is on this, but I imagine the contract changes can only be made with union agreement. It’s not unilaterally the archbishop’s decision. I would think the union would be willing to strike over this, but who knows?

The minister designation is surely an attempt to qualify for the "ministerial exemption’ most recently used in an education context in Hosanna-Tabor. That is very dangerous for the teachers because that goes beyond morals clauses. In Hosanna-Tabor, it appears they used it to get around the American with Disabilities Act to fire (successfully) a teacher with a disability.

The teachers would be crazy to sign this contract if they have enough power to stop it.
 
Catholic schools usually can’t get enough tuition money out of parents or donations out of parishioners to pay teacher’s union money. It’s a charity, in most parishes, where every kid gets a parish discount and poor kids pay even less. I gather that there are non-parish schools in some places that charge big fees, but they are no doubt subsidizing a lot of scholarship/discount attendees (including teachers’ kids, probably).

Catholic schools were mostly set up to be run by nuns, brothers, or priests in orders, working on stipends given to their order in exchange for the work. That’s why shifting to lay teachers has made life awfully scrimpy for most Catholic schools, for the last forty years or so.

Nor do teachers’ unions want to unionize Catholic schools, because they know they can’t get blood from a stone.

So unless San Francisco is significantly different from other parochial schools, the teacher’s unions probably have nothing to say about it.
 
Monkey1976 said:
Cordileone unveiled the initiatives Feb. 3 and was the focus of protests by students and parents three days later. A second candlelight prayer vigil is scheduled for Wednesday evening at St. Mary’s Cathedral.

Organizers, who scheduled the event to correspond to the start of the Christian season of Lent, have called Cordileone’s morality clauses “divisive” and say sexual morality is being overemphasized at the expense of other Catholic teachings.
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🤷

Really?

The family is under attack, innocent children aborted, and they are holding a “prayer vigil” against these teachings? Seriously, who are they praying to? How can they even use the chapel as a place of protest.

Surely, the Bible is wise to say that the devil can disguise himself as an angel of light.

Better start the Lenten season with a good confession, not by doing service to the enemy.

Edited: the word “enemy” deserves nothing more than a small letter e.
 
CNA_News said:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/i...A_CNA500x320_US_Catholic_News_11_13_12.jpgSan Francisco, Calif., Feb 20, 2015 / 03:19 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Politicians have targeted San Francisco Catholic schools’ teacher standards, but Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone says they are a matter of Catholic mission and common sense.

“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?” he wrote in his reply to eight state legislators who had criticized Catholic standards for school employees.

The archbishop suggested a hypothetical situation in which Democratic politicians employ a “brilliant campaign manager,” though a Republican, who is willing to work for them and not speak or act contrary to his employers or his employers’ political party.

“Now let’s say that this campaign manager you hired, despite promises to the contrary, starts speaking critically of your party and favorably of your running opponent, and so you decide to fire the person,” the archbishop continued in a Feb. 19 letter. He suggested this firing would be done not for hatred of Republicans but because the employee “violated the trust given to you and acted contrary to your mission.”

The Archdiocese of San Francisco on Feb. 3 announced additions and clarifications to the faculty and staff handbooks for the archdiocese’s four high schools, as well as proposed new morals clauses for teacher contracts that would define teachers as having a ministerial role. The archdiocese said the changes to the handbook and contract do not contain anything new but are intended to “clarify existing expectations that Catholic teachers in their professional and public lives uphold Catholic teaching.”

The changes focus on sexual morality and religious practice due to prevalent confusion about the Church’s stance, Archbishop Cordileone said in early February.

But political protests and threats – not confusion – greeted the changes.

“What is happening is a direct challenge to the teaching authority of the Church and its right to teach its doctrine by public authorities in direct conflict with the First Amendment,” Bill May, president of the California-based Catholics for the Common Good, told CNA Feb. 19.

Eight California state legislators, in a Feb. 17 letter to Archbishop Cordileone, called on him to withdraw the morality clauses. Although they acknowledged he has “discretion over working conditions” at the schools, they claimed the standard for high school staff and faculty “infringes on the personal freedoms of their employees” and “sends an alarming message of intolerance to youth.”

The legislators claimed the standards “conflict with settled areas of law” and “foment a discriminatory environment” in the community. They suggested that religious freedom exemptions in federal law are being used as “a tool for discrimination.”

feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/catholicnewsagency/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA
http://forums.catholic-questions.or...r/catholicnewsagency/dailynews/~4/Rlq54DMyTmI

Full article…
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I stand with the Archbishop. Good role models and those who believe in their commitment should be the deciding factor. Those who cause scandal through their own willful acts should be excluded from any Catholic school that promotes Catholic values and desires its students to see those values lived out by those instructing them. The Archbishop is being entirely reasonable. Like any job, certain things are expected, and if an employee is aware of those expectations and doesn’t meet them then he or she can be let go. Some jobs will let employees go without cause, not that I’m advocating that.

Ed
 
There is a teachers union in the four high schools under direct Archdiocesan control. I don’t know whether some other schools that would be subject to the contract are not unionized.

From a National Catholic reporter article, it appears the Archbishop is showing flexibity on whether the contract language includes 'Minister"
During a question-and-answer period following a Friday talk to more than 350 Catholic high school educators gathered at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory School in San Francisco, Cordileone indicated openness to altering contract language he is seeking that would classify employees in the four schools as “ministers.”
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Union members fear that designation would distance them from legal protection against discriminatory actions or firings by making them an official part of the church apparatus.
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“All is lost” if the ministerial definition is adopted in contract language, one member said during the meeting.
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Asked following his address if he was willing to discuss changing or removing the term “minister,” Cordileone said his goal is “to find language” that would “reflect employees’ legal rights” but at the same time accomplish his push to make clear that all employees are collaborators in a Catholic school’s mission and that the Catholic schools of the archdiocese endorse the entirety of Catholic church teaching
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Full article

ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/san-francisco-teacher-union-fanning-hopes-contract-breakthrough
 
cycleman said:
Not sure what the position of the teachers union is on this, but I imagine the contract changes can only be made with union agreement. It’s not unilaterally the archbishop’s decision. I would think the union would be willing to strike over this, but who knows?

The minister designation is surely an attempt to qualify for the "ministerial exemption’ most recently used in an education context in Hosanna-Tabor. That is very dangerous for the teachers because that goes beyond morals clauses. In Hosanna-Tabor, it appears they used it to get around the American with Disabilities Act to fire (successfully) a teacher with a disability.

The teachers would be crazy to sign this contract if they have enough power to stop it.
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The teachers who work in Catholic schools are generally not members of a union (unless there’s a specific Catholic Teachers Union I haven’t heard of). The teachers’ unions I know of in California are specific to public schools.

When it comes to Catholic education, the local bishop/archbishop is only limited by direction which comes from his conference - in this case the USCCB - or from the Vatican.
 
CatholicHockey7 said:
The teachers who work in Catholic schools are generally not members of a union (unless there’s a specific Catholic Teachers Union I haven’t heard of). The teachers’ unions I know of in California are specific to public schools.

When it comes to Catholic education, the local bishop/archbishop is only limited by direction which comes from his conference - in this case the USCCB - or from the Vatican.
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The teachers in the four high schools under S.F. Archdiocese control are unionized. See sfaft2240.org/

I really don’t know if these are the only four schools covered by the contract or not, but if you look at post #7 you will see that the Archbishop is discussing/negotiating language with the union.
 
cycleman said:
The teachers in the four high schools under S.F. Archdiocese control are unionized. See sfaft2240.org/

I really don’t know if these are the only four schools covered by the contract or not, but if you look at post #7 you will see that the Archbishop is discussing/negotiating language with the union.
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Unfortunately I saw that post AFTER writing my post:thumbsup:
 
CatholicHockey7 said:
Unfortunately I saw that post AFTER writing my post:thumbsup:
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I guess Catholic teacher unions are a rarity. Looking at it a bit more, this appears to be a local of a huge teachers union, probably 99% of which are public school teachers.

I think the the Archdiocesan Federation of Teachers (the local involved in this contract) is a local of the American Federation of Teachers, a huge union. Very confusing because they both use the initials AFT.
 
cycleman said:
I guess Catholic teacher unions are a rarity. Looking at it a bit more, this appears to be a local of a huge teachers union, probably 99% of which are public school teachers.

I think the the Archdiocesan Federation of Teachers (the local involved in this contract) is a local of the American Federation of Teachers, a huge union. Very confusing because they both use the initials AFT.
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This was the first I’d heard of a union representing teachers at Catholic schools. I went to a Catholic high school in the Bay Area (Diocese of Santa Rosa, though) which didn’t have a union.

The major unions in California that I would expect involved are California Federation of Teachers and California Teachers Association. If it were public schools, you’d also here about CALPers involvement because that’s the organization that manages pensions for government workers.
 
Hooray for the good Archbishop!

The rhetoric of those legislators is a little frightening…:eek:

Gertie
 
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