Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

Apparently not in some places. From www.cnn.com….

–The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal discrimination complaint against a Catholic school, charging that it unjustly fired an unmarried teacher for being pregnant.

“I don’t understand how a religion that prides itself on forgiving and on valuing life could terminate me because I’m pregnant and choosing to have this baby,” Michelle McCusker said Monday at a news conference to announce the suit.

The 26-year-old preschool teacher was fired last month from St. Rose of Lima in Queens, according to published reports. (Watch what was in her termination letter — 1:36)

The Diocese of Brooklyn also was named in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint.

“This is a difficult situation for every person involved, but the school had no choice but to follow the principles contained in the teachers’ personnel handbook,” diocese spokesman Frank DeRosa said in a news release.

The handbook says that each teacher must “convey the teachings of the Catholic faith by his or her words and actions.”

Lawyers at the NYCLU, which filed the suit on McCusker’s behalf, argued that administrators enforced the policy in a way that disproportionately affects women.

“The school used her pregnancy as a marker,” attorney Cassandra Stubbs said. “How do they determine if male employees engage in premarital sex?”–

Oh, all this brouhaha over something simple. She doesn’t understand how she got fired? I could tell her. See, you teach in a Catholic school, and the handbook for your job says that you are to follow Catholic teachings and set a good exmple for your students. And you’re not doing that if you’re getting pregnant out of wedlock with no “wed” in the future. That’s not Church policy. So you probably shouldn’t be working in a Catholic school if you’re not too keen on following what the Church teaches. You knew what you were getting into when you took the job and (presumably) read the handbook. Kudos to the Diocese and the school for having the courage to do the right thing. The NYCLU is in on this, of course, so we’ll have to see how it turns out in court, but for now I’m happy that somewhere in this country bishops and principals are still standing up for what the Church believes in.

And as for the male employees–sure, premarital sex is against Church doctrine. But you can’t really (well, OK, I guess you could) pass around a survey every day asking the teachers if they’ve engaged in fornication. And how would you know they weren’t lying? Pregnancy, on the other hand, is pretty unmistakable. Is it fair to women? Probably not. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles, kids. Lesson? Don’t have pre-marital sex and teach at a Catholic school. Not a good idea.

If you were near a major media outlet today, particularly a newspaper, you probably tumbled upon an article reviewing the new Vatican Document about gays in the priesthood. I’ve talked about it earlier on this site (…go to the home page and read “and the winner is…orthodoxy!” for more), so I won’t burden you with more of the same, but I just have to get this off my chest–

since when did the Catholic Church in the West allow practicing *anythings* in the priesthood?? You must be celibate–that’s the way it is, heterosexual, homosexual, whatever. It’s a remarkably fair policy. If you want to be a priest, you can’t get married, you can’t have “sexual relations” as a priest, (and you should’nt’ve had them before! Ahem!) that’s just it. This is not new. And yet the press is acting like we’ve just said that you can’t be a priest if you have brown hair! Come on! Not that I expect parity fromn the press (Lord knows it won’t happen) but I would like a wee bit of fairness. Just a little. A tad. The document is expected to be released next week on the 29th, so I’m sure there will be more on this….sigh.

I just finished Thomas a Kempis’ landmark work, “The Imitation of Christ”, which is often called the world’s best-selling book, second only to the Bible. Given that it was published in 1418, that’s not too surprising, and the book is clearly a product of its age, although it does remain contemporary for today’s Catholic (and Christian…but they may have to skip the parts on devotion to the Eucharist).

The work itself is a series of short chapters divided into four sections: 1. Spiritual Admonitions; 2. Admonitions pertaining to inward things; 3. Internal Consolation; and 4. A Devout Exhortation to the Holy Communion. When I say these chapters are short, I mean it. They’re more like meditations, most only a page or two long, that make it perfect for daily reading. It can be difficult to read many chapters in one sitting, because the themes tend to run together or become repetitive, so I would recommend reading it daily, or choosing a day of the week and reading one or two and then spending 15-20 meditating on what you’ve read. All of his entries are chock-full of theological insight and inquiry, so they take some digesting in order to get the full effect.

The book focuses on living only for God and renouncing things of this world as much as possible, even other human relationships, making sure that every relationship you have and everything you do only brings you closer to God and Heaven. It’s a bit sparse for our modern minds to comprehend, and can seem somewhat tough to follow–it’s a very asture life he’s advocating here. It’s also a life of great self-sacrifice and self-denial, training yourself to only want Jesus and to follow His ways by becoming purer in prayer, life, thoughts, and practice, which involves sort of stripping yourself of the world and worldy cares and vices. Like I said, it can seem a little medieval (which is fitting, given when it was written), but don’t let that stop you from reading it. It still contains great pieces of religious advice and thoughts on prayer and Eucharistic devotion.

Some passages are written in the voice of Jesus (”the Beloved”) and some are written in the voice of A Kempis inquiring after Jesus (”the follower of the Beloved” or something like that…depends on the translation). Those dialogues, more toward the end of the book, are interesting and insightful, as is the book on Eucharistic devotion.

I just mentioned translation–I have one from 1900 (Barnes and Noble Library of Essential Reading $7.95) that is loaded with thees and thous and wiltnots and stuff like that. If you, like me, are familiar and fond of Shakespeare and high English dialect and translation, then this is OK for you. If you like a clearer, more modern translation, this isn’t. I’m sure your local library, bookstore, or the omnipresent Amazon.com will be able to help you track down a more modern version of the text.

This would make good reading for older teens (that are spiritually and intellectually mature) and adults. Parts of it can be hard sledding, so don’t give up if he loses you at some points. I found it helpful to keep a pencil handy and mark the sections that were particularly helpful or beautiful to me, in order to keep me focused and on-track. This would also be a useful trick in guiding meditations.

I would also recommend A Kempis’ “The Passion of Christ, According to the Four Evangelists.” It is also written in a meditation-style (v. short chapters) and I read it every Friday as my meditation for the day. It is extremly appropriate for Lenten devotion, and is less on the ‘thees’ and ‘thous’–I have the translation for Ignatius Press, which is very good; beautiful but clean and stylish. (But everything from Ignatius Press is good) Both these books would make wonderful gifts for others or yourself and will enhance your spiritual life immensely as you meditate on the ideas he sets forth.

Frivolous post of the day:

This morning on Good Morning, America, the anchors were discussing what I thought was an odd topic– B XVI’s sense of fashion. It appears that he regularly wears red Prada shoes and his papal aides also possess a sense of style. There’s no link to the story, but I thought it was nice to see a story on the Pope that didn’t criticize the poor man (although they did lead off the story with a connection to the novel The Devil Wears Prada….which they quickly turned into something funny). I always supported B XVI and his work, but now I can support his fashion sense, too.