Top teaching posts only for 'practising Catholics'

Heads of Catholic schools are being asked by the Maltese archdiocese to discuss new terms of employment that will guarantee that schools’ head teachers and other staff can be safely considered to be “practising Catholics” – or face disciplinary action if their “life choices give scandal or run counter to the ethos of the school”.

The document, seen by MaltaToday, will be discussed on Tuesday with heads of school at the Mount St Joseph retreat home in Mosta.

‘Practising Catholic As A Requirement For Eligibility And Selection Of Staff In Church Schools’ will lay down requirements that will forbid top school posts to be occupied by people who do not share the Catholic faith or “do not adhere in their substantive life choices to the teachings of the Catholic Church”.

The decision could close the door to the employment of divorced teachers, gay teachers, or even single parents who have had children out of wedlock, or parents of IVF children, if these “substantive life choices” are not in line with Catholic teaching.

The key posts that can be filled only by ‘practising Catholics’ will be head teachers or principals; assistant heads; coordinator of religious education and staff that teaches religion; counsellors, PSD teachers, and other staff “who assists students to address and make substantive life-choices that involve fundamental Catholic values”; key leadership posts that “directly affect the Catholic mission of the school”, and any appointees to key posts in the Church Schools Secretariat.

The Church is not ruling out other teaching posts that it says could “directly affect the Catholic mission of a school”.

Practising Catholics will be defined as those who are baptised as well as living up to the faith’s sacramental obligations; and whose life choices reflect a “religious, moral and ethical behaviour in accordance with the teachings of Christ… and (are) not in any way detrimental or prejudicial to the religious ethos and character of the school”.

The Church will argue that key posts in schools will require the performance of objectives that are “essentially catechetical and religious” and therefore both “vocational as well as professional in nature”.

“They carry an obligation… which cannot be fulfilled by someone who does not adhere in their substantive life choices to the teachings of the Catholic Church, or by anyone who does not share the Catholic faith.”

It will argue that this decision is not against EU law, as long as the principles of non-discrimination are fully respected, because “the religious objectives of these posts require the post-holder to strive to model in their lives the values of the Gospel and to adhere, in the substance life choices that they make, to the teachings of the Catholic Church”.

Under the 1991 agreement between the Holy See and the Maltese government, the Church retains the right to direct its schools with autonomy of operation, which is also recognised in a 2011 agreement with the teachers’ union, the MUT.

The Church says it is essential that practising Catholics occupy key school posts because they are at the service of the bishop’s mission to “govern, teach and sanctify the people of God” through education; and that the job is both “religious” and “vocational”.

Holders of current posts

The Church will tell holders of the current posts that maintaining “substantive life choices” that are incompatible with Catholic teaching and prevents them from receiving the sacraments, “can give scandal” to the Christian and run counter to the school’s ethos.

If they seriously contravene the terms of appointment, an investigation would be launched by the school’s governors and “failing a suitable and satisfactory solution to all parties concerned, decisive disciplinary action may need to be taken”.

It is unclear as to what disciplinary action can be considered, but the Church says any such action must be exercised with “charity and compassion”.

Assessment of suitability

The prospective teachers and school heads will have their suitability assessed according to “evidence… of the substantive life choices they are known to have made and adhere to, both in the personal and public forum; and whether or not those choices are compatible with the teaching of the Catholic Church”.

This means that teachers whose contributions to public life may have not been consonant with Catholic teaching could be prevented from seeking higher school posts.

In fact, the document says that a school’s board of governors will have to be notified when a staff member adopts a life choice that is incompatible with the Gospel.

“In any case, he or she will be required to accept the following code of conduct: (a) that their personal life-choices or circumstances which contrast or run counter to the Catholic ethos of the school remain private and are in no way promoted or openly presented as alternative or acceptable choices; (b) that they actively support and promote the Catholic ethos of the school and the values upheld by a truly Catholic education.”