[Because they oppose Church teaching on matters such as women's ordination and contraception]
Some catechists object to profession of faith
CWN – July 12, 2012
Some Sunday-school teachers in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, have quit their posts in protest after the diocese asked all instructors to take an oath of fidelity to the Catholic faith.
Giving front-page attention to the teachers’ protests, the Washington Post reported that the Arlington diocese is one of several in the US that has begun asking catechists to make an explicit profession of faith. The trend is a response to the call by Pope Benedict XVI for more explicit commitment to Catholic doctrine during the Year of Faith.
Additional sources for this story: Arlington Diocese parishioners question need for fidelity oath (Washington Post) www.washingtonpost.com/local/sunday-school-teachers-balk-at-oath-agreeing-to-all-church-teachings/2012/07/11/gJQAcAvGeW_story.html
The Profession of Faith to which they object; the standard modern one required of “teachers … who teach disciplines which deal with faith or morals”:
I, N., with firm faith believe and profess everything that is contained in the Symbol of faith: namely:
I believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten not made, one in Being with the Father. Through him all things were made. For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven: by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified. He has spoken through the Prophets. I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
With firm faith, I also believe everything contained in the Word of God, whether written or handed down in Tradition, which the Church, either by a solemn judgement or by the ordinary and universal Magisterium, sets forth to be believed as divinely revealed.
I also firmly accept and hold each and everything definitively proposed by the Church regarding teaching on faith and morals.
Moreover, I adhere with religious submission of will and intellect to the teachings which either the Roman pontiff or the College of Bishops enunciate when they exercise their authentic Magisterium, even if they do not intend to proclaim these teachings by a definitive act.
Fr. Araujo on the Importance of Oaths!
blog.cardinalnewmansociety.org/2012/07/13/fr-araujo-on-the-importance-of-oaths/
Oaths of fidelity have been much in the news lately, with a number of catechism teachers in the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, resigning in fury because they were asked to make an oath of fidelity to Catholic teaching. That story even made the front page of The Washington Post. And just last week, The Cardinal Newman Society reported that the future of a “Catholic” group which ministers to gay and lesbian Catholics is unclear because its board members are refusing to sign an “oath of personal integrity” to Catholic teaching required by the local bishop.
Fr. Robert John Araujo, S.J., of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law writes at the Mirror of Justice blog that there is ”much sympathy” being shown to those refusing to take these kinds of oaths. “But,” he wonders, “should there be?”
He points out that lawyers take an oath upon admittance to the bar and the practice of law, those who served in the military (as Fr. Araujo has done) take an oath, and many who take public office are familiar with taking an oath. He points out that the President, federal judges, and members of Congress also do so. Even citizens called as witnesses in judicial proceeding must first declare an oath swearing the testimony given shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
“These oaths are a part of our lives when we consciously and mostly freely elect to do something where the oath is an integral element of the action pursued,” writes Araujo. “It needs to be clear that these oaths about which Catholics are now raising concerns and objections are not being imposed on the unwilling; rather, they are being required of those who have offered themselves to serve the Church and to uphold with fidelity what the Church teaches.”
But while they are commonplace, Fr. Araujo reminds us that ”oaths are important matters and not to be taken lightly.”
When we make this free election to serve, we also need to recall that our commitment to serve must be done in good faith, and our offering a proclamation of this commitment in the making of an oath is not an unreasonable requirement that serves as a testament of our commitment. As Robert Bolt’s Thomas More reminds us, when a person takes an oath, he holds his own self, the essence of his being, in his hands; but if the person opens his hands “he needn’t hope to find himself again.” More concludes by stating that some people aren’t capable of this, yet he “loathes to think” that he would be such a person. Taking an oath is important and one enters the taking of the oath conscious of what it implies. But there is a preliminary matter that must be first acknowledged: does the person want to do something, does the person freely choose to pursue a path that will inevitably require an oath? If so, then this individual should not quarrel with the oath that will follow the path he or she has chosen in the exercise of liberty.