Catholic Church, Again!

Woman fired for using insemination

This is the kind of story we are always afraid can happen -- tends not to in this era -- but has.

A technology coordinator for a Catholic school in Cincinnati was initially fired for becoming pregnant as a single woman -- but since that violated anti-discrimination laws -- she was then fired because she used insemination to conceive, which they say violates her employment contract with the Catholic Church. They pointed out a statute of Catholic doctrine that prohibits techniques for conception that infringe on a "child's right to be born of a father and a mother known to him and bound to each other by marriage," claiming that this is gravely immoral.

You can read the Huffington Post story here.

My thanks to Kim, on our Choice Moms Over 40 discussion board, for bringing this story to our attention.

Personally, as someone who grew up Catholic, and went to Catholic school for eight years before leaving the church when my parents also fell away from its mixed messages -- I tend to still be surprised by "morality" rules that seem to apply only when convenient to the church. That child molestation did not infringe on "rules" enough to lead to firings from the top on down certainly comes to mind.

The birth control regulations inside a family home is another. After doctor's orders not to conceive for several years after I was delivered early (and a previous brother died at birth), my parents knew that their concern about the health-to-child issues they would have faced again had they conceived and not adopted as they built their family was something the Catholic doctrine did not care about.

And, of course, especially at this time of year, we are reminded of the fact that the Virgin Mary was impregnated by "techniques" forbidden by Catholic Catechism Section 2376 that "betray the spouses’ ‘right to become a father and a mother only through each other.'"

So Christa -- now the happy mother of a 10-month-old -- is suing, awaiting the U.S. Supreme Court's attention.

You can read the original Cincinnati news article here, which also notes that Christa was fired from her job by the Rev. James Kiffmeyer, who was suspended in 2002 after being accused of sexual misconduct with two male students at Fenwick High School, where Kiffmeyer was a teacher. He was reinstated in 2006, after the Archdiocese made a financial settlement with one accuser. As the article said, "The Vatican reviewed the cases but handed down no discipline."

What do you think of this story? Use the comments field below.

-- Mikki

I found the above article after a friend alerted me to the latest in Catholic hypocrisy.  What really struck me in reading the article is the writer's comment that the Catholic Church's teaching, if applied to Mary, would force her out of the church, to wit, that the techniques forbidden by Section 2376 of the Catechism that "betray the spouses 'right to become a father and a mother only through each other,'" were violated through the insemination and birth of Jesus.  So  . . . let's follow this to its logical conclusion.  If Mary were teaching at a Catholic school, she would be fired for violating Catholic doctrine, instituted by men after the fact.  Oy vey!