The two are just the latest church workers to be fired over issues of sexuality and marriage, clashes that have heightened in recent years as same-sex marriage becomes more mainstream even as the church holds the line on L.G.B.T. issues. According to New Ways Ministry, at least 80 people have been fired from Catholic parishes, schools and other entities in cases related to sexual orientation over the past decade—though they note that this figure is based only on individual cases that go public.
“With each new firing, the injustice of these actions becomes clearer and clearer to Catholic people in the pews,” Francis DeBernardo, the group’s executive director, told America. Mr. DeBernardo adds that the “singling out of L.G.B.T. church employees as the only group whose lives must be in full accordance with the hierarchy’s sexual ethics is blatant discrimination.
“While these actions hurt those that are fired and the communities they serve, they also hurt the church as a whole because our credibility as voices of justice is weakened, and our image as a community of love and compassion is destroyed.” [...]
Ms. Kaveny echoed that sentiment, saying, “If you’re taking the church’s sexual ethic seriously, are you going to interview heterosexual couples to find out if they’re sleeping together before marriage or if they’re using birth control? Questions tend to fall unfairly on one group of people who may not be accepting Catholic sexual teaching in all its fullness.”
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