Court upholds Indianapolis archdiocese’s right to dismiss school counselor in same-sex marriage

CHICAGO (WISH) — A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld a federal judge’s ruling in September that a Catholic high school in Indianapolis had the right to dismiss a counselor because she was in a same-sex marriage.

The ruling from the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Chicago said in its conclusion that “the district court properly granted the defendants summary judgment on the ministerial exception.”

Judge Richard Young in September had ruled in favor of Archdiocese of Indianapolis and Roncalli High School in the lawsuit filed by Shelly Fitzgerald. She worked as a counselor at Roncalli for 15 years before being removed from her job in August 2018. Fitzgerald sued the archdiocese in October 2019.

Thursday’s decision came after a July ruling from the same appeals court that backed the judge in supporting Roncalli’s nonrenewal of a contract for another counselor, Lynn Starkey. She’d told Roncalli that she, like Fitzgerald, was in a same-sex marriage. In November 2018, Starkey filed an equal-opportunity complaint and, in July 2019, filed a lawsuit against the high school and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

The school has previously argued that Fitzgerald signed and agreed to a ministerial job description in her employment contract that she live in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church. The school also said she acknowledged she breached this clause of contract by entering into a marriage that is not valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church.

Statement

“Religious schools exist to pass on the faith to the next generation, and to do that, they need the freedom to choose leaders who are fully committed to their religious mission. The precedent keeps piling up: Catholic schools can ask Catholic school teachers and administrators to be fully supportive of Catholic teaching.”

Joseph Davis, attorney, on July 13, 2023