DURSTIN: Cleveland Catholic Diocese’s Expanded “Morality Clause” Courts Chaos

By Larry Durstin

Here they go again. The Cleveland Catholic Diocese – those same folks who have spent the better part of the past half-century covering up for predatory priests – has decided to expand the “morality clause” in its contract for teachers at more than 100 elementary schools.

This new contract (which only applies to elementary schools that are part of the diocese, since Catholic high school instructors are unionized and are able to negotiate contract changes) details a laundry list of activities teachers must agree to avoid or lose their jobs.

The wording of the contract bans “public support of positions contrary to Roman Catholic teaching (including but not limited to publicly supporting abortions, euthanasia, assisted suicide, embryonic stem cell research, in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, surrogate parenthood, direct sterilization or so-called homosexual or same-sex marriages or unions.”)

Additionally, it designates teachers as “teacher-ministers” and bans them from sex outside marriage, any same-sex activity, cohabitation outside marriage, drug use, viewing pornography and sending “improper, immoral or scandalous” texts or e-mails.

Although not specified, it’s safe to assume that any public masturbation will get teachers the old heave-ho – as could the too-loud moaning that I’m told occasionally accompanies the private aspect of this forbidden practice. And as far as the tricky issue of how to define pornography, we must all rest assured that Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon knows it each time he sees it.

Back in the sixties, we had a saying that the more you impose order, the more chaos results. Well, if there is any justice in the world, the imposition of this draconian “thou shalt not” contract will produce the kind of chaos such oppressive strictures deserve.

Looking at the list of teacher “don’ts” spelled out in this contract, it’s almost impossible to calculate the number of sticky questions and slippery slopes that come to mind. Can a teacher belong to a group that endorses or supports a pro-choice or pro-gay-rights politician? If a teacher is overheard saying she voted for such a candidate, can she be fired or can she – in order to keep her job – go to confession and promise to never vote that way again?

If a teacher has a gay teenager, does she have to throw him out of the house to prove she’s not supporting his lifestyle? Can a teacher be dumped for participating in a toast for a couple who have just had a child via artificial insemination or for purchasing  condoms in broad daylight?

As a teacher-minister, does she have the moral responsibility to rat on other teachers who may have violated one of the “thou-shalt-nots” – and if not, why not? Also, should elementary students be required to come forward if they overhear that their teacher has a same-sex roommate who may be more than just a roommate – and if not, why not? (You can never start too early turning sinners in to authorities.) And are home computers and phones subject to raids by liturgical SWAT teams bent on unearthing a scandalous text or e-mail? After all, if she has nothing to hide, what’s the problem?

You’ll notice that I’ve used the pronoun “she” in all the above examples. That’s because the vast majority of Catholic elementary teachers are women and, as we all know – unless you happen to be the Virgin Mary – women in the Church still need to be bumped up considerably in order to reach the status of second-class citizen. The unionized Catholic high school teachers (the majority of which are men) are not subject to the new contract, while the female-dominated elementary teachers have no contract-negotiating ability and are told simply to take it or leave.

Never mind that many of these newly minted “ministers” have been teaching for decades (probably not realizing when they started that they would have to eventually sign up for the modern-day Crusades) and would have a tremendously difficult time finding other work should they not accept their recently announced marching orders. That’s the breaks, I guess.

The Catholic hierarchy has long understood that power is not possessed, it’s practiced. Make no mistake, this move by Lennon and the Diocese is nothing more than a gross power play – the kind that the Roman Church has, for the past couple thousand years, turned into an art form. So much so that when it comes to grabbing power and maintaining supremacy through thought control, privacy intrusion, creepy secretiveness, ominous sounding mumbo-jumbo and moralistic repression, the Church makes the government’s so-called Big Brother look like Howdy Doody.

Ideally, the brutish heavy-handedness of this “expanded contract” will result in some serious protest action on the part of the teachers and other fair-minded folks. Already, the head of the National Association of Catholic Teachers has referred to the explicit list of prohibitive behaviors as a “witch hunt” and has promised that if the Cleveland Diocese elementary teachers want to organize, she would help them.

So while Pope Francis seems to be moving the Church’s emphasis away from punitiveness and toward tolerance, the ham-fisted Bishop Lennon is doing just the opposite. Hopefully, this gross edict designed to impose “order” will generate a bit of chaos that will blow up in Lennon’s pious mug. Good Lord willing, that is.

 

 

 

Larry Durstin is an independent journalist who has covered politics and sports for a variety of publications and websites over the past 20 years. He was the founding editor of the Cleveland Tab and an associate editor at the Cleveland Free Times. Durstin has won 12 Ohio Excellence in Journalism awards, including six first places in six different writing categories. He is the author of the novel The Morning After John Lennon Was Shot. LarryDurstinATyahoo.com

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