Values abandoned

As the monks of St Procopius Abbey have now cut ties from Benet Academy due to Benet's "deeply troubling" hiring of a lacrosse coach who was married to another woman, once again Benet is put back in the news.

Benet Academy initially issued a beautifully worded statement about the renunciation of a job offer to a woman's lacrosse coach candidate as she was civilly married to another woman. Benet followed this statement the next day by inexplicably offering this woman the job. The gist of the reversal message was about how this woman's job qualifications made her most suitable for the coaching position. There was no mention of the Catholic moral issue involved.

The highest measure that Benet should hold for their students is their ability to teach them Catholic Christian moral values. Why be Catholic if this is not paramount? But no easy task in a society that is increasingly hostile to Christian moral values in the first place. The veneer that the Benet board changed their mind due to her qualifications from her resume is farcical. Does the Benet board think that little of us?

It is easily evident that the Benet board caved to the progressive student and parent protests. The board's actions, in fact, are quite contrary to their "lay it on thick" comment about Benet's Catholic identity.

The curriculum vitae of the job candidate and any negative social outcry should have been subservient to Benet's mandate of upholding Catholic moral teaching to the whole of the Benet Catholic Christian community. This has nothing to do with hate. The Benet board did an injustice to their students and parents by folding as they did. Again, why then even pretend to be Catholic?

Kenneth Novak

Glen Ellyn