Category: Uncategorized

Is a Catholic school teacher a “minister” of the Catholic Church? Notwithstanding the more laity-centric ecclesiology of the past several decades and the proliferation of “ministers” and “ministries” in the average parish, most Catholics would answer in the negative. While the Catholic Church employs a multitude of lay people in important functions, particularly in schools, calling them “ministers” is indeed a stretch. In today’s dissenting opinion in Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, Justice Sotomayor emphasized this incongruity. She claimed that the “ministerial exception” to employment laws is meant to address concerns about state meddling in the leadership and governance of religious communities. Relying on the more common understanding of “minister”, Justice Sotomayor suggested that the exception should only apply to those individuals who serve a “unique leadership role” in religious community, which does not include “[l]ay faculty . . . who teach religion at church-affiliated schools.”