National Catholic Reporter’s Editor Asks: Is Tide Turning on LGBTQ Church Worker Firings?
Heidi Schlumpf
Is the tide on firing LGBTQ employees at Catholic schools turning? This question was asked by National Catholic Reporter’s executive editor Heidi Schlumpf in an October 11th column.
Schlumpf’s impetus for raising the question was the employment dispute involving Amanda Kammes and Benet Academy. She writes:
“So when my sister texted me last month with the news that the Catholic high school her three now-adult children had attended had rescinded a job offer to a lacrosse coach after the woman put her wife down as her emergency contact, I was hardly surprised.
“‘Happens all the time,’ I told my sister, who noted that students, parents and alumni had started a petition and gone to the media with their support for the coach.
“I assured her that happens all the time, too.
“But what doesn’t happen all the time is that the school, Benet Academy in suburban Chicago, reversed its decision and again offered the coaching job to Amanda Kammes, who accepted it.”
Schlumpf’s conclusion does acknowledge, however, that the dispute at Benet Academy may not be resolved fully after the abbot in charge of the religious community that oversees the school expressed concern with Kammes’ hiring.
About the larger context of these church worker employment disputes, Schlumpf spoke with Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry. Asked whether there had been similar resolutions as with Benet Academy, where a firing was reversed:
“[DeBernardo] could recall only one: In 2015, students, alumni and parents from St. Mary’s Academy in Portland, Oregon, protested when the school pulled a contract that had been offered to a counselor after learning she was a lesbian. The school not only reinstated her, but expanded its employment policies to welcome gay staff and administrators.
“DeBernardo hadn’t been in touch with anyone at Benet, but expressed hope that Catholic schools might be beginning to realize that firing employees over their sexual orientation hurts the institution in the long run — not to mention the LGBTQ students in their care.
“‘I would hope, too, that these administrators are also beginning to follow Pope Francis’ example of not being exclusionary towards LGBTQ people,’ DeBernardo said. ‘More U.S. bishops are starting to get that message and perhaps it is trickling down to Catholic administrators.'”
Schlumpf also spoke to the president of Jesuit-run Seattle Preparatory School, Kent Hickey, who commented:
“‘Give me a teacher more like St. Francis, one who preaches the gospel at all times, using words when necessary. That preaching in the classroom (or on the playfield) should include genuine expressions of care, upholding the sacredness of the person, and building up the Body of Christ in Christian community. . .That’s the high bar we should be trying to reach. Those are the essential teachings upon which that lacrosse coach should be hired or fired.'”
The LGBTQ-related employment disputes have not ceased. Just yesterday, Bondings 2.0 reported on the latest firing, that of Matthew LaBanca who was terminated by the Diocese of Brooklyn over his same-gender marriage. But, returning to Schlumpf’s original question, is the tide turning for LGBTQ church workers where there are at least signs of hope? Leave your thoughts in the ‘Comments’ section below.
—Robert Shine, New Ways Ministry, October 28, 2021
I have taken the National Catholic Reporter for years as I have been a faithful reader of Bondings 2.0. Both are wonderful tools to help me stay informed about the activities of my Church and my faith and where they intersect with my life. The statement that the official or public church has somehow softened its hateful anti-LGBT attitude about employing known LGBT individuals is insulting to the intelligence of readers of either publication. Even when an immediate or local supervisor makes a loving statement as soon as any upper authority brings a case to its conclusion the LGBT individual is shown to the door. Please show me the Bishop who defends the the human rights of an LGBT person even though the Pope has provided more than enough openness to make this possible. Homosexual persons are just as hunted a class within the church as they were a few centuries ago when we were burned at the stake. Yes many members of the Church as the human body of Christ is opening to a charitable view of all humankind, but the hierarchy is sadly a distinct majority of those who want to keep the church the most private of un-Christ-like of clubs. Give praise where it is due, but no amount of lipstick will make the church’s current anti-gay stance kissable.
One or two surprising cases out of more than a hundred firings in the last decade does not constitute a changing tide. No, quite the opposite. They are anomalies. There must be a clearly demonstrated pattern of behavioral change to declare that the tide is changing. Unfortunately, the only pattern that has been demonstrated is quite the opposite.