Cathedral High termination. WISH on Jun 24, 2019 INDIANAPOLIS — Just days after the Archdiocese of Indianapolis cut ties with one Catholic high school over its decision to continue to employee a gay …More
Cathedral High termination.
WISH on Jun 24, 2019 INDIANAPOLIS — Just days after the Archdiocese of Indianapolis cut ties with one Catholic high school over its decision to continue to employee a gay teacher, another school is firing one of its educators to avoid the same fate.
Cathedral High School, located on the northeast side of Indianapolis, announced Sunday it is terminating a gay teacher in order to avoid a split with the archdiocese, which, last week, stripped Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School of its Catholic identity.
Brebeuf refused to fire its educator, who is in a public same-sex marriage.
Cathedral's board Chairman Matt Cohoat and President Rob Bridges posted a letter on the school's website announcing the decision to "separate" from a teacher in a public same-sex marriage. The letter is addressed to the "Cathedral family."
The archdiocese made it clear, the letter said, that keeping the teacher employed “would result in forfeiting our Catholic identity due to our employment of an individual living in contradiction to Catholic teaching on marriage.”
Cathedral administrators said it was “an agonizing decision” but necessary. Cathedral, like Brebeuf, had been in talks with the archdiocese about this issue for nearly two years.
The relationship between the two schools and the archdiocese is different, though. Brebeuf is sponsored by the Midwest Jesuits, an order of Catholic priests, and receives no financial support from the archdiocese.
Close ties with the archdiocese
Cathedral is affiliated with The Brothers of the Holy Cross, but relies more heavily on the archdiocese. According to the letter, the school would lose its ability to offer sacrament and could not continue to have diocesan priests serve in the school. The letter said Cathedral would also lose its 501(c)(3) status if the archdiocese ejected it and would no longer be able to operate as a nonprofit school.
"We know that some individuals do not agree with every teaching of the Catholic Church and so their conscience struggles between the teaching and what they believe is right," Cohoat and Bridges said in their letter. "We want you to know that we respect an individual's conflict between teaching and their conscience."
WISH on Jun 24, 2019 INDIANAPOLIS — Just days after the Archdiocese of Indianapolis cut ties with one Catholic high school over its decision to continue to employee a gay teacher, another school is firing one of its educators to avoid the same fate.
Cathedral High School, located on the northeast side of Indianapolis, announced Sunday it is terminating a gay teacher in order to avoid a split with the archdiocese, which, last week, stripped Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School of its Catholic identity.
Brebeuf refused to fire its educator, who is in a public same-sex marriage.
Cathedral's board Chairman Matt Cohoat and President Rob Bridges posted a letter on the school's website announcing the decision to "separate" from a teacher in a public same-sex marriage. The letter is addressed to the "Cathedral family."
The archdiocese made it clear, the letter said, that keeping the teacher employed “would result in forfeiting our Catholic identity due to our employment of an individual living in contradiction to Catholic teaching on marriage.”
Cathedral administrators said it was “an agonizing decision” but necessary. Cathedral, like Brebeuf, had been in talks with the archdiocese about this issue for nearly two years.
The relationship between the two schools and the archdiocese is different, though. Brebeuf is sponsored by the Midwest Jesuits, an order of Catholic priests, and receives no financial support from the archdiocese.
Close ties with the archdiocese
Cathedral is affiliated with The Brothers of the Holy Cross, but relies more heavily on the archdiocese. According to the letter, the school would lose its ability to offer sacrament and could not continue to have diocesan priests serve in the school. The letter said Cathedral would also lose its 501(c)(3) status if the archdiocese ejected it and would no longer be able to operate as a nonprofit school.
"We know that some individuals do not agree with every teaching of the Catholic Church and so their conscience struggles between the teaching and what they believe is right," Cohoat and Bridges said in their letter. "We want you to know that we respect an individual's conflict between teaching and their conscience."