Indiana Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Sacking Gay Catholic School Teacher

The Supreme Court in Indiana has upheld a decision by a Catholic school to fire a teacher because of his same-sex marriage.

The Archdiocese of Indianapolis fired Joshua Payne-Elliott from his position as a world languages and social studies teacher at Cathedral High School, a position he held from 2006 to 2019.

According to Gay Times, Cathedral High School were reportedly aware of Payne-Elliot’s marriage to his husband, a teacher at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School, renewing his contract through May 2019 to include the 2019-2020 school year. However, the archdiocese demanded both Cathedral and Brebeuf fire both men “due to the teacher being a spouse within a civilly-recognized same-sex marriage.”

When Brebeuf refused, the Archbishop Charles C. Thompson issued a statement that the school would not be recognized as a Catholic institution. Cathedral yielded to the archdiocese, firing Payne-Elliot.

In a letter, which attempted to defend their decision, Cathedral said the archbishop “made it clear that Cathedral’s continued employment of a teacher in a public, same-sex marriage would result in our forfeiting our Catholic identity due to our employment of an individual living in contradiction to Catholic teaching on marriage.”

“Cathedral has been a Catholic school for the past 100 years and our Catholic faith is at the core of who we are and what we teach at Cathedral,” the letter added, “to remain a Catholic Holy Cross School, Cathedral must follow the direct guidance given to us by Archbishop Thompson and separate from the teacher.”

The four participating justices said “religious freedom” which is protected by the First Amendment, “encompasses the right of religious institutions ‘to decide for themselves, free from state interference, matters of church government as well as those of faith and doctrine.’”

Kathleen DeLaney, Payne-Elliot’s attorney, condemned the decision. "[The] movement towards immunity from civil liability for religious institutions that discriminate against their employees” in an email to the Indianapolis Star. “The court did, however, expressly allow Mr. Payne-Elliott to file a new complaint and start the case anew,” she continued.

Payne-Elliot is “disappointed” by the ruling and made it “clear” that the Archdiocese of Indianapolis “ordered the school to breach my valid, legal employment contract – a contract that the school had renewed three times after the school was aware of the relationship.”

In a press release, lawyers for the archdiocese lauded the decision, describing it as a “commonsense ruling in favor of our most fundamental rights.”

Attorney Luke Goodrich wrote: “Religious schools will only be able to pass down the faith to the next generation if they can freely receive guidance from their churches on what their faith is. We are grateful the court recognized this healthy form of separation of church and state.”

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