Fontbonne Academy provided the following statement regarding the dismissal of Matthew Barrett.
Fontbonne Academy does not discriminate against anyone based on their sexual orientation. Fontbonne is a school that is guided by the religious doctrines and beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church has a very specific belief that marriage between two persons of the same sex is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic church and that belief informs policies of how Fontbonne Academy and all Catholic schools are to operate on this issue.
— Gregg Chambers, Assistant Head of School for Mission Advancement
Don’t they see the direct contradiction in their own statement. Fontbonne starts by saying they don’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and then says they feel they are right to discriminate on that basis.
Fontbonne Academy is a valued part of our community and has a proud history of fostering strength and independence in the young women it teaches. Now it undermines its own work with a myopic view of its employees. I can’t imagine how an employee’s personal life has anything to do with their performance in food service.
While this is a serious and sad commentary on the school’s agenda, I had to laugh at Yvonne Abraham’s column on Sunday in The Boston Globe: ” Matthew Barrett was going to manage the cafeteria ….not remake the Theology Department. Even if he were so inclined it’s hard to see how he could push a gay agenda from the kitchen: same sex meatballs in the Italian wedding soup?”
Certainly points out how ridiculous a stand they have taken. This is so blatantly discriminatory and Mr Barrett will certainly win in court. The only question left for him is if he wants to work for them in the end.
And the question for parents: do you want your daughter to attend a school that fosters such discrimination?
Official Catholic Church policy: “There are areas in which it is not unjust discrimination to take sexual orientation into account, for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment.”
as a senior citizen with 16 years of catholic school education in my past — CCD teacher, awards from St Mary’s College at Notre Dame as an outstanding example of a young Catholic woman, as President of the Sodality, and a career working in human services,
and an all around good person — I find what Fontbonne is doing incredibly non Christian and personally offensive. It is so sad the students there won’t have the same chance I had in the Catholic world in which I grew up to grow into serious and caring and accepting human beings — and gee I am married to a woman …
Refer to the Supreme Court Case HOSANNA-TABOR EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH AND SCHOOL v.EEOC; No 10-533 Argued Oct 5, 2011; Decided Jan 11, 2012.
In employment by a religious organization, the type of employee, that is, the function of the employee is the determinant. If the employee performs a religious function, s/he can be required to abide by the doctrine of the organization and it can employ or dismiss that person in order to exercise their religious liberty that the First Amendment guarantees. However, if that employee does not perform a religious function, s/he is protected from discrimination in employment.
Good point, Annie! Thanks for posting this!
Another Catholic school “lifestyle” firing making news: http://mtstandard.com/news/local/update-butte-central-teacher-fired-over-pregnancy-pledges-legal-action/article_c12a5e44-8dc7-11e3-808b-001a4bcf887a.html
This statement is laugh-out-loud doubletalk. We don’t discriminate but… we discriminate. More sad than funny, though.