25 January 2013

No embargo

The Catholic Church in England and Wales has issued a shocking new booklet warning teachers and governors at Catholic schools that they risk dismissal if they enter a relationship that is not approved by the Church. (See article below from The Tablet for full details)

Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the National Secular Society, said:

"This document is completely unacceptable. The Church is behaving like the worst kind of malignant religious cult, trying to control everything that its employees think and do – and all with public money.

"It is scandalous that the Catholic Church is able to use taxpayers' money to practise this sort of crude discrimination.

The way a person arranges their private life, so long as it is within the law, should be of no concern to an employer, not even the Catholic Church, particularly if no scandal is caused, which is less and less likely given cohabitation or homosexual relationships are becoming commonplace. Ironically the vast majority of UK Catholics disagree with their Church's hard line on matters such homosexuality* and contraception* and cohabitation.

"Putting such restrictions on to an employee's personal relationships is prurient and tyrannical.

"We should not forget that Catholic schools are run with state funding – the money we give them should be used for proper education, not for this kind of indoctrination and dictatorial control."

The NSS has written to Education Secretary Michael Gove calling on him to tell the Catholic bishops' conference that these policies are unacceptable and, in all probability, against the law. The NSS wants the booklet withdrawn immediately.

Mr Porteous Wood added: "If we come across anyone who has been fired from a Catholic school simply because they are living in a relationship that the Church does not approve of, we will be happy to assist them in a court challenge.

"We must protect people from this kind of injustice. It flies in the face of the progress the law has made in removing discrimination."

Article reproduced from The Tablet

Church spells out rules for personal lives of senior Catholic teachers

Sam Adams

THE CHURCH has warned that senior teachers at Catholic schools could face disciplinary action if they form any "non-chaste" relationship outside marriage.

In a new booklet about Catholic schools, the general secretary of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, Mgr Marcus Stock, writes that key staff members and governors cannot perform their roles if they make "substantive life choices" that are incompatible with church teaching. Catholics who cohabit or enter into same-sex civil partnerships would fall into this category.

Under the heading of "substantive life choices", Mgr Stock includes marriage in a non-Catholic church or register office without canonical dispensation, remarriage after divorce and "maintaining a partnership of intimacy with another person, outside a form of marriage approved by the Church and which would, at least in the public forum, carry the presumption from their public behaviour of this being a non-chaste relationship". This also applies to all staff in a Catholic school.

Other "substantive life choices" he rules unacceptable include "maintaining the publication or distribution of, or by any other means of social communication or technology, material content which is contrary to gospel values".

The booklet, "Christ at the Centre: Why the Church provides Catholic Schools", is published jointly by the bishops' conference and the Catholic Education Service (CES) through the Catholic Truth Society.

Mgr Stock – acting director of the CES – sets out what is required of a Catholic school's head teacher, deputy head teacher and head of religious education and governors as practising Catholics. He writes that if these were to enter "non-chaste" relationships outside marriage, "their ability to govern or lead and model Catholic life and faith with ecclesial integrity may cease to exist".

In such circumstances, he writes, there should be an investigation that could lead to a governor being removed or disciplinary action being taken against a teacher.

He stresses that any such action should be "measured, sensitive and exercised with charity and compassion". He also states that those appointing senior staff or governors should not appraise an applicant's spiritual and moral successes or failures. "Almost all Catholics fail to live their lives fully and do not give authentic witness to their beliefs in all aspects or at all moments of their lives," he writes.

However, he adds that a practising Catholic "despite weaknesses and personal sinfulness" will make only substantive life choices that follow the "way, the Truth and the life". The booklet was first published in 2005 for the Archdiocese of Birmingham when Mgr Stock was director of schools there.

The latest edition includes a new supplement containing the material concerning teachers' and governors' life choices.

In 2003, prior to the legalisation of civil partnerships in Britain, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued guidelines stating that "respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions".

The ability of the Church in England and Wales to take disciplinary action against staff at Catholic schools who enter into civil partnerships remains unclear, however.

In 2007the Archdiocese of Liverpool was told by lawyers that it was unable to sack the male head teacher of one of its schools after he entered into a civil partnership with another man.

In a statement issued at the time, the archdiocese said the Church was advised that in that case "nothing could be done, despite the fact that the head was acting contrary to church teaching". Using a question-and-answer format, the booklet addresses the central purpose of Catholic schools. Mgr Stock writes that this is to put Christ and the teachings of the Catholic Church at the centre of the educational enterprise. He states that the Church provides Catholic schools to assist parents in the education and formation of their children.

Although they are provided for the Catholic community, he explains, they are a public good which benefits the whole of society.

He also points out that the racial and ethnic diversity in Catholic schools produces shared values that promote respect for the rights and dignity of every human person which is essential for social cohesion.

*You gov poll for ITV for Pope visit

http://cdn.yougov.com/today_uk_import/YG-Archives-Pol-YouGovITV-PapalVisit-020910.pdf

YouGov / ITV Survey Results

Sample Size: 1636 Catholic Adults

Fieldwork: 31st August - 2nd September 2010

Which of these views about contraception comes closest to your own?

It should be used more often, to avoid unwanted pregnancies and/or to avoid Aids and other sexually transmitted diseases 71

It is entirely up to couples to decide if and when to use contraception 23

Artificial contraception is wrong, and shouldn't be used 4

Don't know 1

Which of these comes closest to your views about consenting adults having homosexual relations

Good for them: we should celebrate loving relationships, whether gay or straight 41

I'm in favour of equal rights, but in general I think straight relationships are better than gay relationships 19

I don't like homosexuality, but accept that what consenting adults do in private is their business, not mine 28

Homosexual acts are morally wrong 11

Don't know 1

ENDS

Notes to editors

01738 842924 / 07774 680341

Keith Porteous Wood

020 8997 8371 / 07810 224 380 (ISDN available)

kpw@secularism.org.uk

About the National Secular Society

The National Secular Society is Britain's only organisation working exclusively towards a secular society. Founded in 1866, we campaign for the separation of religion and state and promote secularism as the best means to create a society in which people of all religions or none can live together fairly and cohesively. The NSS sees secularism – the position that the state should be separate from religion – as an essential element in promoting equality between all citizens.