The Catholic Church in England and Wales has issued a
new booklet warning teachers and governors at Catholic schools that they
risk dismissal if they enter a relationship that is not approved by the
Church.
The warning comes in guidance
(PDF) written by Monsignor Marcus Stock, general secretary of the
Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and co-published by
the Catholic Education Service.
British Catholic weekly newspaper, The Tablet, reports:
Under the heading of "substantive life choices", Mgr Stock includes marriage in a non-Catholic church or register office without canonical dispensation, remarriage after divorce and "maintaining a partnership of intimacy with another person, outside a form of marriage approved by the Church and which would, at least in the public forum, carry the presumption from their public behaviour of this being a non-chaste relationship". This also applies to all staff in a Catholic school."
Other "substantive life choices" he rules unacceptable include "maintaining the publication or distribution of, or by any other means of social communication or technology, material content which is contrary to gospel values".
Many 'faith' schools are
granted special legal privileges enabling them to discriminate in
employment on religious grounds. Many teachers can find themselves
blocked from certain positions because they are non-believers or of the
'wrong' faith. In addition, teachers can be disciplined or dismissed for
conduct which is "incompatible with the precepts of the school's
religion".
The National Secular Society has described
the Catholic Church's restrictions on its employees personal
relationships as "prurient and tyrannical."
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "It
is scandalous that the Catholic Church is able to use taxpayers' money
to practise this sort of crude discrimination. The document is
completely unacceptable. The way a person arranges their private life,
so long as it is within the law, should be of no concern to an employer. We
will be writing to the Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove,
asking how he can justify a law that permits teachers in faith schools
to be disciplined or dismissed for conduct which is 'incompatible with
the precepts of the school's religion'. Such a harsh and unfair law
drives a coach and horses through equality legislation and leaves
teachers, paid using public money, uniquely vulnerable to religious
discrimination."
The level of discrimination permitted in 'faith' schools is currently the subject of an investigation at the European Commission
following a complaint by the National Secular Society concerning
whether UK legislation relating to state funded 'faith' schools breaches
European employment laws.
The NSS has made clear
that if it comes across anyone who has been fired from a Catholic school
simply because they are living in a relationship that the Church does
not approve of, it would be happy to assist them in a legal challenge.