As any Roman Catholic priest or nun will tell you, extra-marital sex is clearly a sin and should be punished, severely. I am grateful to the National Secular Society for the following:
Catholic school that unfairly dismissed an unmarried mother loses appeal
A Catholic school that sacked an unmarried teaching assistant after she became pregnant has lost its appeal against a decision that it unfairly dismissed her.
An employment tribunal in Teesside found last November that St Alphonsus Primary in Middlesbrough had discriminated against Julie Blenkinsop by refusing to allow her to return to her job after maternity leave. The school then offered her a temporary contract, which she declined as it started too close to the birth of her child. Later, the deputy head teacher asked her to sign a letter that stated she would not return to work after maternity leave. Ms Blenkinsop made it clear that the letter was wrong and that she had only refused the school’s offer of a temporary contract.The November tribunal heard that Ms Blenkinsop contacted the school after the birth of her child but was informed by the headmaster that her job was no longer available.
Ms Blenkinsop, who has another child who is a pupil at St Alphonsus, took the school to the Teesside employment tribunal where it was judged that her claim of sexual discrimination (pregnancy/maternity) was “well-founded”. Following the school’s unsuccessful appeal, there will be a hearing to decide compensation. According to her solicitors, Ms Blenkinsop would like to return to her job.
Sadly there’s something unsurprising about an authoritarian institution acting harshly towards a human being at a vulnerable time in her life.
“Until the institutional Catholic Church recognises that, abases itself, pays up, allows whistleblowing and faces the unthinkable, it remains a disgrace. Until it learns humility, it has no hope at all. It is a Church living with one foot in Hell.”
(Libby Purves, The Times)
“All over the world, the Catholic Church is raising and shaking its finger at a sinful world. It needs to understand that sometimes the world will want to raise a finger back.”
(Andrew Brown, Church Times)
Yeah…let the good catlicks (the same institution that upheld and facilitated the rape of children) screw over a woman when she actually needs support the most…how very righteous of them to push single-parent families into poverty!
Why am I not surprised?
It doesn’t even take Catholics to do it. A relative of mine, whose been depressed and deeply religious from time to time and always attending church services, got pregnant with her temporary employer.
Most of her (odd) friends at the time belonged to either of a number of Protestant free churches in our home town. Most of them treated her OK, I guess. But she was of course scorned by the ‘new-born’ leader of her own group.
She hadn’t planned for her pregnancy and didn’t want to live with the much older man. When I got the call, I felt compelled to rush to the maternity ward to be at her side at the delivery.
I immediately could tell something wasn’t as it should be when the child was delivered. It was a son and he had been born with Down’s syndrome.
She hasn’t been able to find a steady job since. To the leader, of course, this was the final punishment from ‘the Master’, and he didn’t hesitate to tell her…nor did some other members of the same congregation, male and female.
This bloke had been expelled as a clergyman from the at the time state-owned church, for his opposition and search for a ‘true’ empathy, oh I’m sorry, Christianity.
Jonas
Thanks for the reminder that Roman Catholics are not the only people who share a frightening religious certainty that they feel gives them the right to abuse others in the name of their deity.