Indianapolis Catholic Archdiocese Fires Straight LGBTQ Allies

Social worker fired for supporting LGBTQ staff

Catholic schools all over the United States have been firing LGBTQ staff after forcing contracts on professionals that categorize them as Church “ministers.” Last year, the Indianapolis archdiocese ordered its 70 schools to purge all LGBTQ staff. After the diocese fired several teachers and counselors, officials threatened to expel students for objecting. Now the archdiocese is extending its purge to straight staff who support LGBTQ equality. American Catholics in huge majorities oppose Church mistreatment of LGBTQ people. It’s time for Catholics of good will to put their money where their mouth is.

The official Roman Catholic Church in the United States is a powerful enemy to LGBTQ people,

fighting against civil equality and for discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodation. Oddly, Catholic lay people count among the most LGBTQ-accepting people in the the country. According to PRRI, more than 72% of American Catholics “strongly support” LGBTQ equality. The dissonance between Church membership and Church leadership is nowhere more apparent than in Catholic schools, where the Church is injecting LGBTQ kids and their peers with toxic messages.

In Spokane, for example, several Catholic schools just cancelled trips to hear a famous astronaut speak, after her marriage to a woman became public.

Indiana Catholics schools are shaming and scapegoating

In the latest development in Catholic discrimination, central Indiana schools are purging long-time LGBTQ staff and have threatened students with expulsion for objecting. Now the Archdiocese of Indianapolis has fired a straight social worker after she posted on Facebook that she disagreed with the Church’s position.

History of the LGBTQ purge

The Indiana LGBTQ purge began more than a year ago with the firing of guidance counselor Shelly Fitzgerald. After forced firings of another counselor and two teachers, a spokesperson admitted that Archbishop Charles Thompson had ordered that all LGBTQ teachers must be fired from archdiocese schools.

The archdiocese infamously stripped the “Catholic status” of Brebeuf Preparatory School after they refused to fire a gay teacher.

The Church justified the firings by calling teachers and professional counselors and social workers “ministers of the Church,” a practice that began with new contracts signed in 2015, according to the IndyStar.

The Archbishop’s policy is targeted discrimination

Church officials have not called for enforcement of other religious teachings that would impact divorced teachers, janitors who use birth control or condoms, or any staff member who has had an abortion. They’re only going after LGBTQ staff.

They’re going after straight allies now too

Kelley Fisher, who is straight, says the Archdiocese of Indianapolis dictated that she be fired her from her job as a social worker at Roncalli High School over her public support of Shelly Fitzgerald and Lynn Starkey, two Roncalli guidance counselors who were fired for marrying same-sex spouses.

Fisher, a Roncalli staff member for the last 15 years, has filed two discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The Indy Star reports that she officially worked for Catholic Charities, “part of the archdiocese contracted by schools to place social workers.” Fisher says Archbishop Charles Thompson told her that publicly supporting Fitzgerald or Starkey would “go against the Catholic Church.”

Counselors and social workers are not ministers

Fisher told NBC News that she couldn’t accept that. “[The Indianapolis archdiocese] is trying to say anyone who works for a Catholic school, that we are ministerial employees, and yet I have no training in it. I’m not a priest, I’m not a minister, and they have tried to say I have had training and I am a minister.”

Professionals are professionals

Fisher says she’s a licensed social worker and trained counselor, bound to follow a professional code of ethics that forbids discrimination. “I meet you where you’re at, and value judgments don’t come into our session because that’s not what counseling and social work is.”

She says she made two public Facebook posts opposing Fitzgerald and Starkey’s firing and seeking a change to the school’s new employment contract that characterizes staff as Church ministers.

The archdiocese fired Fisher for expressing her opinion

Roncalli principal Chuck Weisenbach called Fisher in to ask whether she could “adhere to Catholic teachings when giving advice to LGBTQ students.” She said she “felt very strongly about never applying” her own personal values or judgement when counseling students.

Nevertheless, four months later, Fisher was placed on a “performance improvement plan” despite having only ever received positive performance reviews. In April, she was told she wouldn’t be returning to Roncalli. In May, Catholic Charities fired her.

Teachers fear for their jobs, object to being called ministers

The Indy Star has interviewed a handful of Fisher’s coworkers, who say they fear supporting Fisher, accepting friends’ invitations to go to gay bars, or appearing in photos of friends’ same-sex weddings. They say they are not ministers of the Church, despite the new contracts the archbishop imposed as a condition of their continued employment. They say they are state-licensed professional teachers with their own codes of ethics, codes the Church has never before tried to contravene.

Church officials are increasingly calling staff members ministers because of “ministerial exceptions” to civil rights laws and regulations that allow churches to hire and fire clerical staff without State interference. The Roman Catholic Church is twisting the meaning of “minister” beyond common definition, though. Professional teachers, social workers, and counselors know they aren’t Church ministers, and they object to being treated as if they were.

Children are learning terrible lessons

The Church is teaching students that LGBTQ people are second-class citizens who don’t deserve employment protection. Queer kids are internalizing homophobia, and straight/cis kids are internalizing powerful lessons about how religion justifies homophobic bullying.

Dominic Conover, a gay student who graduated from Roncalli last June, tried to speak out and work for change in the Church he says he loves, fighting for LGBTQ inclusion and respect. He gained a national stage, but then the archdiocese called him into a meeting with a senior official who threatened to expel him and ruin his college plans unless he stopped speaking in public. He and several other students working with him acquiesced. The Church browbeat them into not fighting for justice and inclusion.

Parents and allies need to step up

Catholics of good will recognize that targeted discrimination and homophobic bullying are wrong. They know that teaching kids to discriminate is a value they can’t square with ideals of love and justice.

But for some reason, perhaps inertia, Catholics all over the US tolerate anti-LGBTQ bias in their school systems. Even with the purge going on in Indianapolis, enrollment is not down significantly this year. Parents are writing letters to the editor and talking among themselves about how much they disagree with the Archbishop’s bullying tactics, but they aren’t putting their money where their mouth is.

Parents, will you take action?

Moms and dads of LGBTQ kids? Moms and dads whose straight kids have LGBTQ friends? Can I ask you an important question? Have you thought about what your tacit acceptance of bigotry is teaching the young people you love so much?

Have you thought about the fact that the hard-earned money you’re paying as tuition is enabling unjust discrimination your Church teaches is a moral failing? Have you thought about how any money you give to your local parish is paying for bigotry you know is wrong?

I wish you could ponder that. And while you do, think about this, will you?

All it takes for evil to prevail is for a few good people to do NOTHING. All it takes for love to win is for a few good people to do SOMETHING.

James Finn is a long-time LGBTQ activist, an alumnus of Act Up NYC, an essayist occasionally published in queer news outlets, and an “agented” novelist. Send questions, comments, and story ideas to [email protected].