The administrators at Eastside Catholic High School ignited a far bigger controversy than they expected when they fired a popular vice principal for marrying his partner. Not only has the student body revolted but the incident has brought into sharp focus how the Catholic Church hierarchy and its subordinates happily turn a blind eye to all kinds of things contrary to "Church teaching" unless, of course, one is gay in which case strict application of the rules can be assured. Adding to the utter hypocrisy is the fact that not a single bishop has yet to face meaningful punishment for aiding and abetting and covering up for priests who sexually molested children and youths. A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the Church's hypocrisy. Here are some highlights:
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.
[E]ven a cursory look at Eastside’s personnel practices show that the school is picking and choosing just what counts as behavior “inconsistent” with Church teachings. Just off the top of my head, I can recall teachers who became pregnant outside of marriage, teachers who advocated for the death penalty, teachers who handed out condoms to students, even a few openly gay teachers. . ..
Abuse allegations against teachers, extramarital affairs by board members, even student-produced sex tapes were hushed-up and hidden from sight. In every case, the school demurred or ignored any conflict with church doctrine.
Firing an employee for violating a rule that doesn’t make sense is wrong, but selectively firing such an employee is even worse. If Eastside really wants to hang its hat on the argument that religious institutions must abide by canon law, then the school can at least actually abide by canon law.
The school has continued to muddy the waters. Before resigning from her position on Tuesday, Sister Mary asked an ECS senior to share this comment: “I look forward to the day when no individual loses their job because they are married to a person of the same sex.”
The only group that hasn’t exercised back-bending feats of hypocrisy is the student body. Students have walked out, picketed, debated with church leaders, and are even organizing a national “Mr. Z” day, asking people across the country to wear orange on January 31. As the administration continues to waffle on whether or not the Vatican dictates its HR policy, the students continue to demonstrate Eastside’s only real leadership.
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