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Thursday 7 May 2015

Does it matter if the janitor at a Catholic parish is gay?

I am again wondering what I was musing on a week or so ago.
In an announcement Tuesday, the German bishops’ conference in Bonn said the majority of bishops had ruled that immediate dismissal will only be a “last resort” for employees who are divorced and subsequently “remarry” or those living in a registered partnership.
Until now, such employees were required to be dismissed from such employment, although the rules were often ignored. The Church is the second-largest employer in Germany.
“An automatic dismissal may now in future be ruled as out of the question,” said Alois Glück, president of the Central Committee of German Catholics, the country’s top lay Catholic organization. From now on, he said, any public violation of loyalty to Church teachings must be examined on a case-by-case basis.
The amendment, when enacted by a bishop, explicitly overturns a 2002 ecclesiastical law, which stipulated that all Church employees need to be loyal to the magisterium.
Adulterers and gay people need to make a living. In a country where the Church is the employer of such enormous numbers, doesn't justice require that this be taken into account?
A teacher, (yes, even a coach or computer teacher,) is indubitably, whether this role is embraced or not, a "role model."
The bookkeeper? not so much.
The psalmist at the ambo presents as a liturgical ministers instructing the assembly in the way of prayer.
But does an organist in a loft?
The music director, yes, but the French horn player jobbed in for Christmas?
Sticking with the area, I am most familiar with, is there any reason not to employ a Protestant or an atheist to arrange the brass parts for Easter? I think not.
But is it reasonable to disqualify that non-Catholic as a member of an editorial board that decides what lyrics are suitable for the de facto sung theology of the Church?
I believe so.
A psychotherapist with no acceptance, or even perhaps understanding, of the Church's views on guilt and responsibility should not be counselling through Catholic Charities, a doctor who will be part of the ethics committee at a Catholic hospital and does not think with the mind of the Church shouldn't even get an interview.
But does it matter who sets a broken bone?

I'm willing to take instruction here - maybe I am missing some ramifications of this.
By failing to exercise Her right not to hire in some cases, is the Church likely to find Herself constrained by laws such as that threatening Her autonomy in DC in others? essentially forced to hire those who work against Her truths, who actively promote sin?

I dont know.

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