Denver Newsroom, Jun 22, 2020 / 08:19 pm (CNA).- Leading education expert Father Ronald Nuzzi will head a task force for Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Seattle, with a special focus on the “ministerial covenant” that helps Catholic teachers witness to and pass on the Catholic faith.
“Catholic schools are rooted in the Catholic faith. It’s what makes them different from other private schools,” Nuzzi told CNA. “Therefore, our educators are asked to teach from this faith-based foundation.”
“At the core of the faith are the great mysteries, which root both parishes and schools in the Incarnation, the Trinity, the Paschal Mystery, and the Eucharist,” he said.
Nuzzi is a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown in Ohio and professor emeritus of the University of Notre Dame. He is senior director emeritus at the university’s Alliance for Catholic Education, which aims to support, improve and expand Catholic K-12 schools, especially schools lacking resources.
“Catholic schools had their origin in the immigrant Church, providing a safe and faith-filled place where newcomers to this country could learn, grow, and prosper,” Nuzzi said. “They served a vital social and religious purpose, providing waves of immigrants the opportunities to fully participate in American society. Today, Catholics are part of the mainstream, but schools are still providing a counter-cultural witness, addressing the secularization, consumerism, relativism, racism, and hyper-individualism that are so common today.”
“In some ways, a Catholic school education, rooted in Gospel values and the example of Jesus, are even more important today than they once were,” he continued.
Nuzzi’s task force is set up to secure three key goals. These include a review and study of Church documents about Catholic teaching and tradition, especially the formation of conscience, free will, and human social and sexual development. The task force will assess, analyze and summarize the convictions, beliefs and opinions of archdiocesan stakeholders about the ministerial covenant and its use in employment decisions.
They will make a recommendation based on “an informed and thoughtful approach” to renewal of the ministerial covenant in a way that respects both of the previous goals and “embraces the fullness of church teaching while honoring and appreciating the sense of the faithful,” the Seattle archdiocese said.
The archdiocese did not respond to CNA’s questions about the meaning of “the sense of the faithful,” or what would happen if public opinion conflicted with Church teaching.
“The Ministerial Covenant ensures that our 73 Catholic schools reflect our Catholic faith. How it is applied across our Catholic schools is of great interest not only to me, but to all our principals, teachers, parents and students,” Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle said in a June 16 statement from the Seattle archdiocese.
He voiced gratitude for Nuzzi’s leadership in “this important body of work.”
“He is a well-known leader in Catholic school administration and has a wealth of experience as well as a great passion for the faith and Catholic schools,” Etienne said.
Nuzzi will review nominees for task force membership. Nominees include principals, pastors, parents of children in Catholic schools, Catholic school teachers and members of the archdiocese’s Office for Catholic Schools. The nominees will be announced in July.
“The ministerial covenant is signed by all employees of the Archdiocese of Seattle. It hasn’t been updated in several years, so this taskforce will review its language and how it is applied at Catholic schools across the archdiocese,” Nuzzi told CNA. “What is important about the title ‘ministerial covenant’ is that every Catholic school in the country, including all in the Archdiocese of Seattle, considers teachers to be ministers of the Gospel and witnesses to the faith.”
Ministerial language is not intended to “clericalize” lay teachers or obscure the lay state, he said.
“Lay leaders not only help run our Catholic schools, they help run our entire archdiocese,” Nuzzi said. “This taskforce is focused on Catholic teaching and the Catholic faith – not on clericalization. In calling our teachers ministers, we are saying they are public, contractually committed, inspired examples, worthy of emulation, not clerics.”
The task force will meet 12 times from August 2020 to June 2021. Members are asked to maintain confidentiality about all deliberations.
In a statement from the archdiocese, Nuzzi described Catholic schools as a “vital part” of the Church’s mission. He said he was “enthusiastic” about the task force and “its potential to help shape a brighter future for youth, children, and families.”
The Seattle archdiocese covers the territory of western Washington State. Almost 580,000 Catholics are registered with a parish and make up over 15% of the area’s population.
The people of Washington state tend to be more secular than other Americans. Those without religious affiliation make up the largest group, about 32%, if small sections of atheists and agnostics are grouped with 22% who self-identify as “nothing-in-particular.” However, 61% self-identify as Christian. Evangelical Christians make up about 25% of Washingtonians, 17% identify as Catholic, and 13% as mainline Protestant, the Pew Research Center reported in 2019.
The task force was announced in February after the Seattle archdiocese saw a controversy in which the facts are disputed. Two teachers at Kennedy Catholic High School in Burien, Washington either resigned voluntarily in order to contract same-sex civil marriages with different partners, or were forced out of their positions.
Michael Prato, president of Kennedy Catholic, said in a February statement that the two teachers approached him in November 2019 to share their desire to civilly marry their same-sex partners.
The teachers had voluntarily signed a covenant agreement to “live and model the Catholic faith in accord with Church teaching,” Prato said. In light of the agreement they signed, both chose to resign, he said. The school worked out a transition plan and financial package for the teachers.
“I hired these teachers and I care about them very much. I still do,” Prato said. “I wanted to make sure they felt supported, and so we discussed several options including the possibility of finishing out the school year.”
Groups of students staged protests in support of the teachers. Students, as well as parents and alumni of the school, also staged a protest outside the diocesan chancery in Seattle.
The two teachers’ attorney, Shannon McMinimee, said the teachers were forced out. She said they “were hoping to have a dialogue with the school about their desire to be their authentic selves and not hide that they were engaged and not hide who they were engaged to.”
“And that — what they thought would be a conversation with their principal turned into being called into the presidents’ office and being told that the superintendent of the archdiocese school system wanted their keys the minute they found out they were gay and engaged,” McMinimee said, according to KING 5 News Feb. 21.
Archbishop Etienne addressed the situation in a Feb. 19 statement.
“Pastors and church leaders need to be clear about the church’s teaching, while at the same time refraining from making judgments, taking into consideration the complexity of people’s lived situations,” he said, stressing that the end goal of accompanying people in faith is “to help people embrace the fullness of the Gospel message and integrate the faith more deeply into their lives.”
“Those who teach in our schools are required to uphold our teaching in the classroom and to model it in their personal lives,” he said. “We recognize and support the right of each individual to make choices. We also understand that some choices have particular consequences for those who represent the church in an official capacity.”
The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexual inclinations are not sinful, homosexual acts “are contrary to the natural law… under no circumstances can they be approved.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes on to say that people with these inclinations should be “accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.”
In 2003, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that “in those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty.” It said Catholics must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation with such laws and, insofar as possible, any material cooperation.
“In this area, everyone can exercise the right to conscientious objection,” the CDF said.
In the United States, various Catholic schools and dioceses have faced lawsuits from employees who have been fired after contracting civil same-sex marriages in violation of the diocesan or school policy.
Despite strong social pressure, the legal freedom of primary and secondary Catholic schools appears secure at present. In the 2012 U.S. Supreme Court case Hosanna Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the court unanimously ruled that religious organizations do not need to follow federal anti-discrimination laws in what was characterized as a “ministerial exception.”
At the same time, religious freedom has become a target by some LGBT advocacy groups and politicians who say it wrongfully protects actions they consider discriminatory.
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The Diocese of Chicago has the temerity to dismiss this man who is operating with the best interests of children in mind, while leaving in place the false messiah, Fr. Pfleger, whose Masses are an abomination, who spreads race hate, and who has been accused of smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol and sexually abusing multiple underage males?
Somebody should have a nice big beautiful millstone sent to diocesan offices as a gentle reminder.
PARENTS,STAND AND FIGHT THESE TYRANTS AND DONT GIVE UP….
The cruelty and stupidity of the people running Catholic institutions are on display daily. A principal is fired for lifting the mask mandate at his school after the state order was overturned in Court and, apparently, two days before the archdiocese did the same thing. How many dissenters from Church teaching has Fr. Marren employed at Queen of Martyrs? But a man refuses to impose the medically worthless and psychologically damaging mask rule and is given the boot by this dictator who surely had the support of the epicene tyrant who rules over Chicago Catholics in the manner of Justin Trudeau. Finally, let all the nitwits who show up here and elsewhere declaiming on the moral obligation to wear masks refute the John Hopkins study that proved conclusively that these humiliating face covers do nothing to protect people from Covid or anything else.
It would appear that once more, the cowards of the hierarchy win. They cant seem to bend low enough to accommodate the ruling class of leftists who are killing the church in slow degrees. And an effective school principal is told to hit the road. All that seems to matter is that you say yes to following orders. It would appear he would have to recant his very sensible decision position publicly. Isnt that what they do in dictatorial re-education camps?
Cupich, behind all this, of course, is mean and petty, not what one would hope for in any Catholic, let alone a Cardinal.
The Church has changed since I was in school; they wanted conformity but they respected people who could think on their feet. Is Common Core coming to a Catholic school near you?
Unlock the world and let the oxygen flow, and relevant learning return in earnest!
“The inmates are running the asylum.” -Rush Limbaugh
👏👏👏👏👏👏
No one should be surprised by this happening in the Archdiocese of Chicago, the pastors in place are tied at the hip to Cardinal Cupich who has consistently been dictatorial. Having lived in the area 30+ years, you can see those priests who have “belittled” themselves and given up their rights to the Cardinal and no longer see those who have pushed back against him, they are suspended or removed. Some like Fr. Phleger can get away with anything simply because the Cardinal agrees with his thinking and approves. This is not about pastoral leadership this is about an agenda to change the Catholic Church and Archdiocese into what He wants it to be not what God intended for it.
Of course Jacob Mathius warrants dismissal. As a principal of a Catholic school he sets an example. Unfortunately, he seems to have forgotten the story of the Good Samaritan where the question is posed “Who is my neighbour?” And the answer is “anyone you are in a position to help.” Masks and other anti-covid measures are for the benefit not of self but of one’s neighbours. It boggles the mind that self-centered people, such that are currently rampant in Ottawa, are given any credence at all.
Please, M. Peringer, must we focus on your straw men? You lead me to suspect you have no argument.
But the issue before us isn’t the generosity of truck drivers in Canada. It’s the efficacy of masking, combined with the magnitude of the threat to high schoolers posed by COVID.
And the fact is, masking’s ability to prevent the spread of COVID is negligible. In fact, young children, because of their shallow lung capacity, are actually harmed by masking since it reduces their ability to absorb sufficient oxygen.
And COVID’s threat to high schoolers is, at most, minimal.
We may certainly disagree in good faith, M. Peringer, but your attempt to characterize those whose views differ from yours as morally inferior seems desperate and, frankly, a little pathetic.
Are you a doctor?
By all means, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, stick to your discredited talking points. Trying to reason with the willfully blind is a futile exercise.
Masks used by most people are useless in preventing a virus from entering or exiting the human mouth or nose; nothing more than theater at best, A study recently released by Johns Hopkins is more than adequate to dissuade anyone who thinks otherwise.
I have heard this smug argument too many times and regard it as trash. Helping your neighbor does not include jumping every time the govt says to do so, especially when their mandates fly in the face of SCIENCE. I recall the Chinese dragging women out for abortions when they violated the one child per family rule. The reason? To help ones neighbors of course by tamping down the consequences of a “too large” population. Were they supposed to cooperate too? With the vaccine, people are also asked to put their own bodies on the line. Many of us have done so with some trepidation, but this was a calculated risk. With the low transmissibility of covid among children, masking is a red-herring, an absurd intrusion into children’s lives , if not an obscene exercise in govt overreach. “Helping my neighbor” is now entering year 3 of my life and I, like many others, have reached my limit. I am not the slave of the government, nor of the visibly frightened Cardinals.
Raymond, we know only N95 masks work if they are properly fitted. I’m in the agricultural processing business and every employee goes through 1 to 2 masks per day. However, the majority of masks used are cloth and they are WoRTHLESS! OSHA has known for 2 years they don’t stop transmission of the virus. It is posted on the boxes. So your comments are truly without merit.m
Cupich’s Chicago isn’t much different than Capone’s.
Once again Cupich, the Godfather or the Church Mafia (or perhaps Fairy Godmother?) bullies and cancels a Church employee for daring to speak truth.