From the article cited in the second post, I couldn't get a clear understanding of the proposed legislation, or of the Pope's position.

The issue has come up in the United States, and generally religious organizations have been granted a exemption from anti-discrimination laws when hiring employees who have a religious function. If a church teaches that homosexuality is wrong, then I suppose perhaps it shouldn't be compelled to hire a homosexual religion teacher. I'd think that a large Catholic hospital should be compelled to employ anyone who is qualified for most positions, but should a Catholic hospital be allowed to refuse to hire a doctor who performs abortions, if those abortions are performed at another location? What about hiring a church secretary/receptionist who is not a member of the congregation?

It's not an easy question to answer, because "faith-based" organizations depend on having a staff that has a shared religious experience. I volunteer at a nonsectarian women's center that is run by two Catholic nuns. We generally do not employ religious fundamentalists (particularly not Catholic fundamentalists), because they would not approve of some of the things we do to help our clients.

"My" nuns belong to a religious order that operated a Catholic high school in Sacramento until the school closed last year. The school hired a drama coach who had done volunteer work at a clinic run by Planned Parenthood, and that clinic performs abortions. One family in the school raised a stink, and the bishop of Sacramento ordered the school to terminate the drama coach. The nuns did so, reluctantly, giving the coach severance pay to cover the six months remaining in the school year (they billed the bishop for the severance pay, but I don't think he paid). Later, the nuns expelled the family that had raised such a stink in this and other matters over a number of years.

What's happening in the Catholic Church is that an organized movement of conservative lay people, is forcing the Church's hand on a number of issues, and the bishops end up enforcing the letter of the law - even when it violates our principles of compassion. That's what has happened to our "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Of course, the "don't ask, don't tell" practice had the (probably unintended) side effect of protecting priests who were suspected of child molestation. The child molestation scandal has forced bishops to enforce the rules far more strictly, and the conservatives have taken advantage of this change to further their agenda.

Our diocese had a priest who is a brilliant man with a dynamic personality, a gifted musician. He worked in the bishop's office as director of liturgy for the diocese, and he lived with his (male) lover. We had a progressive bishop who ignored the priests living situation; but then we got a new, conservative bishop. The new bishop ordered the priest to break off his relationship, and the priest refused and left the priesthood. Now the former priest is working as a lay employee in a parish as music director. He was replaced in the diocesan job by a layman who was so-so; and now that guy has been replaced by a lay woman whom I like very much - but we went for about five years without a good liturgy director for the diocese, and that was a problem.

So, it's messy.


-Joe-