NEW YORK (CNS) — A court ruling that the New York Archdiocese did not discriminate against a school principal when it did not renew her contract affirms “the freedom of a church to decide who will serve as its religious leaders,” said the Alliance Defending Freedom.
The nonprofit legal group, which supports religious freedom and other issues, made the comments about a unanimous decision July 14 by a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Fratello v. Archdiocese of New York.
Joanne Fratello was principal of St. Anthony School in Nanuet from 2007 until 2011, when her contract was not renewed. She sued the New York Archdiocese for gender discrimination.
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“When the school believed she was no longer effective at advancing the school’s Catholic values, St. Anthony’s simply did not renew her contract, rightfully exercising its right to choose the leaders who advance their faith,” said the Becket Fund, a nonprofit religious liberty law firm that represented St. Anthony and the archdiocese.
“The court saw right through this blatantly anti-Catholic lawsuit, agreeing with the Supreme Court that the church, not the state, should pick religious leaders,” said Eric Rassbach, Becket deputy general counsel, who argued the case for the school and the Archdiocese.
Jeremiah Galus, legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, said the First Amendment “plainly protects a church’s freedom to decide who serves as its religious leaders, as the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged only five years ago.”
He was referring to the high court’s 2012 decision in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC affirming a “ministerial exception” to anti-discrimination laws, meaning the Lutheran school and church in that case could not be sued for firing an employee the church classified as a minister.
The 2nd Circuit in its ruling said the ministerial exception “bars Fratello’s employment‐discrimination claims against the archdiocese, the church and the school, all of which are religious groups within the meaning of the ministerial exception.”
“Although her formal title — ‘lay principal’ — does not connote a religious role, the record makes clear that she served many religious functions to advance the school’s Roman Catholic mission,” the court said.
Those functions included, it said, working closely with teachers to carry out the school’s religious mission, leading daily prayers over the loudspeaker, supervising Masses attended by students, and overseeing “teachers’ integration of lessons about Catholic saints and religious values” the curriculum.
In a statement issued after the court ruling, Mercedes Lopez Blanco, an archdiocesan spokeswoman, said: “A Catholic school is nothing without a Catholic leader. The principal is an important minister of the faith, who holds a crucial position of passing on our values to the next generation. We are grateful students at St. Anthony’s can continue receiving the Catholic education they came for.”
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I am Ms. Fratello’s lawyer. My client did a great job, and was loved by all. Then the new (sexist) pastor arrived. He discriminated against her on the basis of her gender. Then the Archdiocese further victimized her by asserting that she is a “minister,” even though her job was “lay principal.” Thus, she lost her civil rights protections by choosing a career in education in the Catholic Schools.
I have no disagreement with the notion that a Church can select its own ministers, for internal church governance. However, the notion that employees of Church-affiliated entities lose all civil law protection because the employer is affiliated with a Church should give all Americans pause, because religion should not shield an employer with civil law immunity. Pope Francis is inspiration and Catholic schools provide a great education to many children. However, granting the Catholic Church with immunity grants the same immunity to all religious groups, including fringe, radical or intolerant groups. Let pastoral ministers preach the word of God, and let elementary school teachers and principals be sound educators and protective of children. That’s my view. Keeping Church and State separate is best for our democracy.
Would have loved to read in the article what she DIDN’T do to advance the faith.