Loretto Brickbatters Step Up

The Loretto Sisters have done such an admirable job in running their all-girls High School. Their students, in addition to being top-notch spellers, demonstrate a remarkable lack of Catholic Catechism and virtually no sense of how to integrate the Faith into their lives. They parrot the pro-choice rhetoric a generation of double-speakers have spawned. And they're not happy even after Katelyn Sills has been expelled. No, they want everyone to understand just how ssscaaary Catholics are. And they're not afraid to hit-and-run a la anonymously.

Take this mature display by someone clearly from the Loretto scene. Going by the handle "just a couple of facts", She leaves behind a message that begs fisking. I'm happy to oblige:

No one's perfect. Ms. Bain, however, didn't simply make a mistake; she took a stand in defiance of the Catholic Church. She therefore failed to carry out the mission in which Loretta, as a Catholic High School, participates.

You'd have a point if she were Catholic.

Her religion is irrelevent. She's teaching at a Catholic High School, whose mission includes the intellectual and spiritual formation of adolescent women. Families rightly expect a Catholic High School to form their children in the Catholic Faith. Ms. Bain's actions defy this expectation in spades.

You'd have a point if she were teaching acceptance of abortion at a Catholic school.

Right. Since she escorted women into an abortuary so that employees of a multi-million dollar business could murder her own child, she's certainly not teaching acceptance of abortion.

You'd have a point if the school required her to sign an employment agreement that restricted her right to participate in legal activities.

Would that be an employment agreement with an institution that adheres to this mission?

The mission of Loretto High School is to provide an outstanding college preparatory education for young women in a supportive and challenging learning environment. Inspired by the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which owns and operates our school, our goal is to teach the Gospel message of Jesus Christ in the spirit of Mary Ward, founder of the Institute. We encourage and promote the spiritual, intellectual, emotional, aesthetic and physical well-being of each student in the context of community. Together with parents, the primary educators of their children, we strive to instill in each of our students an understanding of self, a knowledge of service, and a commitment to the common good of the world.

Would that be an employment agreement with an institution that holds this philosophy?

The philosophy of Loretto High School is founded upon the principle of the infinite worth of each person, because she is created in the image and likeness of God. Loretto strives to develop the whole person - body, mind and spirit - in an atmosphere of acceptance and support.

Our philosophy has many facets: religious and moral education; intellectual, emotional and physical development; cultivation of the aesthetic sense; development of personal, civic, social and ecological responsibility.

Although we speak of these areas separately, and although distinct goals exist within each of them, we recognize that they are essentially inseparable. Just as each person is a unique person, she is also a whole person. Our approach to learning respects and promotes this wholeness. Together with parents, the primary educators of their daughters, our ultimate goal is to develop disciplined, creative, independent thinkers who have intellectual curiosity and a respect, both spiritual and practical, for life.

Exactly how does Ms. Bain's extra-curricular activities with Planned Parenthood, however legal, contribute to the Loretto High School Community's mission? How does it model their philosophy? It doesn't. Her formal cooperation in grave sin makes a mockery of the very values to which Loretto commits itself. Her outrageous behavior models a sin that cries out to heaven as an appropriate exercise of one's liberty.

The fact is that Ms. Bain is not a Catholic.

So not relevent, like I said before.

She teaches at a Catholic school which made no requirement that she adhere to Catholic teachings outside of the school.

Catholic doctrine on abortion are not exclusive teachings only for the Faithful, like the Eucharist. They are moral teachings. Atheists that support life subscribe to the doctrine that abortion is murder. One does not need to be baptized and confirmed in order to believe--and live--by such moral teaching.

Justice demands equitability.

And exactly how equitable is it to allow a woman's extra-curricular activity to threaten the very mission of her employer? How fair is her scandalous behavior to the hard-working families and alumnae that support Loretto? How just is it to young women that need moral behavior modeled by their teachers with integrity?

This episode is only of note because selective and arbitrary action was taken by the Bishop and the school.

The Bishop took action when Wynette Sills brought Ms. Bain's scandal to his attention. Mrs. Sills only wrote to the Bishop when both Ms. Bain and the Loretto administrators refused to address her continued formal cooperation with grave sin. Ms. Bain had opportunities to do the right thing. She refused. How does that make the Bishop's action selective and arbitrary?

How can I say that?

Yeah, waiting for a good reason on that.

Loretto employs non-Catholics.

And your point is?

We can presume that non-Catholics do not conform to the teachings of the Catholic Church.

And this is a problem because? Oh, yeah, that's right; it's better to have the hobgoblin's mind of a foolish consistency rather than exercise prudence in applying the doctrines of the Catholic Faith. But that would require nuance, which so far you've refused to demonstrate you understand in the slightest.

Only this particular teaching and teacher were singled out for action.

If a teacher practices another religion, but supports the teachings of the Catholic Church in school and lives according to the Moral Law to which we are all bound, that teacher in no way compromises the school's mission. Sadly, Ms. Bain's behavior did not in any way represent such a prudent course of action. She did not only defy The Catholic Church's clear moral teaching that abortion is murder; she actively participated in helping women commit these heinous acts. Her beliefs did not lead to her dismissal; her actions did.

(Jewish teachers at Loretto beware. You don't believe in Christ. Don't let anyone take a picture of you at a synagogue. You may be next.)

Very classy. That Loretto Catholic education did wonders for you. After you're done taking cheap shots and libels that totally distort your opponent's arguments--while offering nothing of substance to challenge them--how about you add something intelligent?

Perhaps the solution to this situation is for Loretto to hire only Catholics and require them to sign fidelity contracts.

Anyone that's willing to participate in Loretto's mission and abide by her philosophy should become a teacher at the School. Ms. Bain embodied these principles how? By inspiring students to inflect more emotion in a dramatic reading?

Being up front and honest about requirements for employment would be better than blindsiding an employee with an arbitrary action.

FOTFLOL!!!! Now that's priceless! "Blindsiding?" In what universe did Ms. Bain live in which she did not understand that the Catholic Church--to which Loretto High School belongs--condemns abortion? How can you reasonably believe that Ms. Bain didn't see any conflict between her behavior and her responsibilities? Exactly what are you smoking? And can I please have some?

In the meantime, there is an inequity which happened here.

Sorry, that dog won't hunt.

The proper thing for the school to have done would have been to set a uniform policy and distribute it to all teachers.

Funny, I thought their mission, philosophy and teacher's agreement would have covered that. Not to mention the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Have teachers sign the policy statement as part of their employment agreement.

Didn't they already sign their agreement when they began their employment with Loretto?

After such clear communication of the employment requirements, Ms. Bain could have been removed for future violations of her terms of employment.

Ms. Bain refused to stop her violations of Loretto's mission. Her superiors at the school showed little interest--to their shame--in seeing that she stop scandalizing their school community. Exactly how would future violations change anything? It wouldn't. The Ordinary of the Diocese of Sacramento needed to exercise his perogative to uphold the Faith and Morals of a Catholic institution operating within his Local Church. Othewise, Ms. Bain would still be at Loretto, causing grave scandal with her perverse witness to Planned Parenthood and the sacrament of abortion.

You can be outraged at Ms. Bain's extracurricular activities.

Why, thank you for graciously allowing me to express my just anger at Ms. Bain's utter contempt for Catholicism.

You can be proud of Katelyn's family's stance against abortion.

It's a shame that you clearly aren't proud of the Sills' stance.

But, if you have any sense of Justice, you cannot be happy about the way this happened.

Who said I was happy? A middle-aged woman that committed herself to a Catholic High School community betrayed their principles by unapologetically assisting women to murder their own children. She refused to stop, and her employers took no action against her. Praise God that the Bishop did the right thing, but why did he need to intervene at all? All I feel about this situation is a great sadness? How lost many of Loretto's students, families and alumnae have seemed to become! Few realize just how poisonous Ms. Bain's scandalous participation with Planned Parenthood is for your own community. You'd side with her "right" to help women murder babies rather than stand with Christ and his Church and demand a Catholic teacher actually support moral behavior.

Being in the right on a moral issue does not then justify immoral action to redress your sense of outrage.

At last, you jumped the shark! Ms. Bain had opportunities to change her course of action. She refused to do so and suffered the consequences. The Bishop of Sacramento had every right to demand that a Catholic institution within his jurisdiction adhere to the Catholic Faith. The Administration of Loretto High School finally did the right thing by dismissing a teacher that insisted on witnessing her agenda rather than the Loretto High School Community's mission. If that's immoral, then Loretto High School and the Dioceses of Sacramento should cease to be, since they have the audacity to stand for Truth and Goodness in an enshadowed world. Clearly, that's a contemptible idea, since such a stand may actually contradict a person's "liberty."

"Just a couple of facts" offers nothing but empty assertions that boil down to "it's her right to express herself, so don't impose your extreme Catholicism on her or the rest of us." If this sad scenario represents the current state of Catholic schools across the nation, maybe it's time to pull the plug. There's no point in spending money so that our children can have their Faith shredded before our eyes.

Katelyn Sills and her family did the right thing. They deserve every Fools' support. Too bad the Loretto High School community doesn't realize what they have in the Sills.

Maybe they will--once they learn how to construct rational thoughts and then stand by them. And once they learn how to spell.