Eastside Catholic: Break the Rules All You Want, Unless You’re Gay

[DonViejo]

A Catholic high school cited its vice principal’s same-sex marriage as the reason for firing him. But what about everyone else violating church doctrine?

During my freshman year at Eastside Catholic High School, in Bellevue, Washington, my unmarried science teacher got pregnant. Despite the dearth of decent sex education, most of us could figure out what had happened. A few students wondered whether the school would fire her; unless this was some sort of miracle, we were pretty sure that having a baby out of wedlock was a big no-no. Fortunately for my teacher and her child, the closest thing to an official condemnation was from an English teacher who pondered during a lesson on Greek mythology whether any swans had been seen stalking the science building.

Ten years later, Eastside’s laissez-faire Catholicism has taken a hard right turn. On December 20, the school’s vice principal and swim coach, Mark Zmuda, was forced to resign after it came to light that he had married his longtime boyfriend over the previous summer. In an e-mail to an alumnus, Principal Polly Skinner explained that the Eastside was “bound by Catholic teaching regarding same-sex marriage.”

Bound by teachings on same-sex marriage, yes, but there was apparently some wiggle room on the issue of marriage in general. Before Zmuda resigned, school president Sister Mary Tracy offered him a choice: he could keep his job, but only if he and his husband filed for divorce. It wouldn’t do to have a gay, married vice principal working at a Catholic school, but Sister Mary could somehow make do with a gay divorcée.

The school has couched its response to the ensuing controversy—hundreds of students walked out of class after the popular vice principal’s resignation was announced—in the fact that the school’s affiliation with the Archdiocese of Seattle left it no choice but to follow Church doctrine on the issue of gay marriage. Additionally, the employee handbook (PDF) states that “the public behaviors of our faculty and staff must be at all times consistent with the values and teachings of the Catholic Church.”

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/24/eastside-catholic-break-the-rules-all-you-want-unless-you-re-gay.html

[rug]

1. Precisely, although there is also this.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/us/gay-marriages-confront-catholic-school-rules.html?_r=0

[cbayer]

2. Great article from an insider.

Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in this case.

[skepticscott]

3. It would be more accurate to say

that it should be highly recommended for anyone who's still wanting to be an apologist for the school, the RCC or the pope in this matter. The rest of us have a pretty good grasp of things.

[rug]

4. Who are you speaking for today, scottie?