No good deed goes unpunished

Catholic Anti-Catholicism
Katelyn Sills, a young Catholic lady attending Loretto High School in Sacramento, California, has been expelled. Katelyn and her family –in particular her mother, Wynette - brought to light the fact that one of the Loretto drama teachers was acting as an “escort” for women seeking abortions through the local Planned Parenthood killing center clinic. The teacher was subsequently fired.

Bishop William K. Weigand of the Diocese of Sacramento stated:
"Obviously, the very public nature of Ms. Bain's previous volunteer activity at a Planned Parenthood Clinic is inconsistent with her position as a teacher at a Catholic high school and her role as a collaborator in the formation of Catholic women," Weigand wrote. "Abortion is gravely immoral and Ms. Bain's active and public participation in the procurement of abortions is morally inappropriate and unacceptable with regard to her work as a teacher at Loretto."

The school seemed to have a somewhat different opinion.
“She is exceptional," said Sister Helen Timothy, the school's president. "Students thought very highly of her.""We lost a great teacher," said Cynthia Mitterholzer, the dance instructor who will take over for Bain.

That is an interesting position for Sister Helen to take since the school’s student handbook apparently states "ANY STUDENT WHO PUBLICIZES OR ADVOCATES AN ABORTION EITHER PLANNED OR ALREADY OBTAINED WILL BE DISMISSED FROM LORETTO." (Capitals theirs).

As a result of the dismissal, and the fact that their names were reported in the local newspaper, Katelyn’s family and Katelyn herself have been exposed to a great deal of hate mail. Now Katelyn has been expelled from Loretto, apparently for the heinous crime of expecting a Catholic school for girls to uphold – of all strange things – Catholic teaching and Catholic belief.

Drop Katelyn a note of support here. If you feel like contacting the “nuns” at Loretto, the president, Sister Helen Timothy, can be reached at htimothy@loretto.net. The principal is Sister Barbara Nelson, bnelson@loretto.net. If anyone in the blogosphere is setting up a defense and/or scholarship fund, please let me know.

Thanks to Ales Rarus for the alert.