Hiring & Firing LGBT Catholics
by Michael Sean Winters | Jan. 5, 2016
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This weekend, my colleague Michelle Boorstein had a finely done article in the Washington Post about the issue of hiring and firing LGBT Catholics from certain positions in the Church. She specifically focused on the case of a cantor at a Catholic Church here in the Archdiocese of Washington who was fired after he contracted same sex civil marriage. I say finely done because she let all sides make their case and did not simplify any of the many complexities of the issue. In this new year, I fear there will be many more such stories, less well done, and that the leaders of the Church need to wrestle with how they want to deal with the issue.
The legal case is, mostly, straightforward: Any church, or synagogue or mosque should be able hire or fire ministers as it sees fit. Douglas Laycock, who is probably the most thoughtful commentator on religious liberty issues, told Boorstein: “For the Church, they are employing this guy who flouts their teachings. His presence on the payroll undermines what the school is trying to teach the kids and what the Church is trying to preserve among the adults. These battles over religious doctrine should be fought out within churches, not in the secular courts.” The distinction between secular and religious jurisdictions is a hallmark of our liberal political tradition and while not all religious liberty claims are valid, the danger of government interference in religious organizations is always problematic and often a grave danger, one to which anyone who is truly liberal should be alert. Many there are who claim the mantle of liberalism but who are all too willing to scratch a totalitarian itch in pursuit of a specific policy objective, trampling underfoot one of liberalism’s proudest achievements, the separation of Church and State. (Indeed, I would note in passing that my opposition to the HHS contraception mandate has always rested on this ground, that government should not be interfering overmuch in religious institutions, nor distinguishing between our churches and our ministries, even though this is not the central argument being made by the Church’s lawyers.)
In a post at his blog, Washington’s Cardinal Donald Wuerl explained his reasons for supporting the pastor’s decision to terminate the cantor’s employment. To his credit, he speaks as a pastor, not a lawyer, and begins by noting that the whole situation is “unfortunate.” He then immediately affirms that the Church welcomes everybody, including LGBT Catholics, and that “any person who struggles in trying to live according to the revealed truth of Catholic teaching should know the Church recognizes his or her dignity as created by God and that the person need not face life’s challenges apart from the grace of the Lord and his Church, which seeks only the highest good of everyone.”
It is clear from the cardinal’s post that the Archdiocese of Washington will be treating these issues on a case-by-case basis which is, I think, an essential affirmation of the dignity of every person. We do not know in these cases, and because these are personnel matters we will never know, if the person terminated was rubbing people’s noses in his public disagreement with the Church, or if he was exceptionally discrete and fell afoul of some witch hunters in the parish. There are a host of public behaviors that could be disruptive in the life of a parish, and a pastor may wish to keep the gay cantor and fire the witch hunting music director. More on this in a bit.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/hiring-firing-lgbt-catholics
