Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
In another display of teacher and media contempt for the Church’s moral teachings, a group of more than 100 teachers, parents and students gathered in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square on Tuesday to continue the pretense that a new morality clause in the Archdiocesan teacher’s contract is forcing them to give up their gay children and right to free speech.
According to WLWT5.com, some Cincinnati Catholics are calling the revised morality clause an unfair limitation of free speech even though the actual clause does nothing of the kind. But instead of reading it, some teachers are simply refusing to sign it and are demanding that the Archdiocese “fix the contract.”
Protestors claim to have signed a local petition with more than a thousand signatures and plan to deliver this to the Archdiocese.
Unfortunately, they are protesting a misrepresentation of the actual contract, a fact that doesn’t seem to be getting through to the people because the media continues to ignore important clarifications made by the Archdiocese just last week.
For instance, WLWT interviewed a woman named Molly Shumate who says she’s not going to sign the contract because her son is gay.
“The main reason I will not sign this contract is my son is gay, and the day he came out to me, the world was lifted off of his shoulder as well as mine, and it was at that moment that I said to myself I will never hide who he is, be embarrassed of who he is and at that point I said I’m going to use this opportunity to make a difference.”
Just last week, Dan Andriacco, communications director for the archdiocese told CNSNews.com that the idea that signing this contract means teachers could be fired for having gay children or going to a gay child’s wedding is “absolute nonsense.”
“There have also been headlines that say that the archdiocese will fire you for being gay. That’s absolutely ridiculous. The term ‘gay’ refers to somebody’s sexual orientation; there is nothing in the contract about sexual orientation. The contract speaks about activity – whether verbal statements or your lifestyle.”
The new contract simply asks teachers to agree “to exemplify Catholic principles and to refrain from any conduct or lifestyle which would reflect discredit on or cause scandal to the School or be in contradiction to Catholic doctrine or morals.”
Some behavior that will not be tolerated includes “the improper use of social media, engaging in or publicly supporting sexual activity out of wedlock, homosexual lifestyles, abortion, use of a surrogate mother, in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination, and membership in any organization whose mission and message are incompatible with Catholic teaching,” CNS reports
Of course, none of this was explained in the WLWT article. The fact that they overlooked this clarification by the Archdiocese in order to continue to feed total falsehoods to the public is proof that they are more interested in inflaming people than informing them.
The Archdiocese has announced that it has no plans to change the new contract.
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