Letters to the Editor: Horror over Catholic teacher contract
Letters to the Editor: Horror over Catholic teacher contract
This letter was originally sent to Bishop Michael Barber, head of the Catholic Church's Oakland diocese, and was forwarded to The Alamedan for publication.
Bishop Barber:
As a Jesuit-educated Catholic, I have reacted with horror at your recent requirement to have teachers and employees in Diocesan schools sign a contract with faith and morals clauses. That has nothing to do with the education of children.
This requirement will be seen as an attempt to impose morality rather than to teach it. That is anathema to what the Jesuits at St. Ignatius and the University of San Francisco taught me. I well remember professors responding to my challenging questions with the attitude of: “Good, Arthur, you’re thinking and not simply accepting.”
What your incorrectly styled ‘voluntary’ requirement will do is to cause many more people to leave your church and seek the truth of Christ without it. It’s not ‘voluntary’ if one cannot be employed without signing it. It doesn’t seem to be logical that you would use that word in this context.
And I don’t mean just the teachers will be leaving. The monetary support will also flee, as many of my associates have already told me. Perhaps that will get your attention.
Finally, a bit of history. This move by you is identical to the move in the McCarthy era to have loyalty oaths required of certain people in certain positions. I’m sure you’re aware of that history.
So, Bishop, step back and take a deep breath, and consider rescinding this requirement. Otherwise you’ll be fueling a lot of unnecessary controversy in an extremely un-Christian fashion.
Yours faithfully in Truth,
Arthur Ramirez Lenhardt
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