Catholic School Teacher Fired for Having In Vitro

ABC News ^ | May 11, 2006

[NYer]

May 11, 2006 — - After five years trying to conceive, Kelly and Eric Romenesko decided to try in vitro fertilization.

Their twins, Alexandria and Allison, were born last year. It was a joyous event in the couple's life.

"They're miracles. They're precious," Kelly Romenesko said.

The couple were not prepared for what came next. When Kelly, a teacher at two Catholic schools in Wisconsin, told her bosses she had gotten pregnant through in vitro, they handed her a pink slip.

"I was in tears," she said. "I remember asking, 'Is this the only reason why I'm being fired?' They stated, 'Yes.'"

The schools say Romenesko agreed to follow church teachings when she was hired. One of those teachings was that the in vitro technique was morally wrong because it replaced natural conception.

"I did not know what the Catholic doctrine stated against in vitro fertilization. Yes, I signed a contract, but the contract was vague in my opinion. I didn't know what I was doing as far as in vitro goes that that went against doctrine. My understanding was it was the Ten Commandments."

Church Doctrine

People like Joseph Capizzi of the Culture of Life Foundation said that in vitro fertilization ran counter to Catholic teachings, which stress that a child should be conceived through sex between a husband and wife.

"It's not so much that it's artificial that's the problem, instead it's removing the sexual act and procreative act from the context of marriage," he said.

The church also takes issue with in vitro because embryos are sometimes destroyed, but Romenesko said there were other teachers who had in vitro in the school. She said she did not go public with her announcement but "stated it to a principal behind closed doors that we were going through this process."

Romenesko appealed to the school board, but it would not reinstate her. Now a state agency is looking into the case. Meanwhile, the Romeneskos have stopped practicing Catholicism.

"I think the issue here is the fact that Kelly was released from her job for being pregnant, not the in vitro fertilization itself," Eric said. "Our daughters have been baptized Lutheran at this point in time. Kelly and I haven't converted yet."

"It wouldn't change my ability to teach in any way," she said. "It's a shame. This shouldn't have happened."

[Carolina]

For the Catholic church to judge this couple this way is unscriptural and judgemental.

It is entirely within the Church's right and role to teach on morality. She is about the saving of souls. A charge she received from the Lord Christ Himself.

You, who are so concerned about the Church being judgmental and unscriptural, refuse to even make a cursory reading of what she believes and find out what the theology is behind the teachings. You disdain the "men who interpret the Bible" who are bound and rooted and grounded in 2000 years of Scripture and Tradition. And you call the Church judgmental?

Mote meet beam.

[Coleus]

My understanding was it was the Ten Commandments." >>>

I guess she missed the part that said, "thou shall not kill"

The IVF procedure fertilizes many embryos where most do not get to see the light of day. They are implanted in the mother only to have her immune system attack them, some are passed, some are selectively reduced and the others are frozen for life in liquid nitrogen.

I partially blame the church since I have yet to read anything in diocesan newspapers or hear any priest talk about it from the pulpit or see any bulletin inserts about it.

[Coleus]

GERARD MAJELLA

Memorial

16 October

Profile

Son of a tailor who died when the boy was 12, leaving the family in poverty. Gerard tried to join the Capuchins, but his health prevented it He was accepted as a Redemptorist lay brother serving his congregation as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. Wonder worker.

When falsely accused by a pregnant woman of being the father of her child, he retreated to silence; she later recanted and cleared him, and thus began his association as patron of all aspects of pregnancy. Reputed to bilocate and read consciences. His last will consisted of the following small note on the door of his cell: "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills."

Born

23 April 1725 at Muro, Italy

Died

16 October 1755 at Caposele, Italy of tuberculosis

Beatified

29 January 1893 by Pope Leo XIII

Canonized

11 December 1904 by Pope Saint Pius X

Patronage

childbirth; children; expectant mothers; falsely accused people; good confessions; lay brothers; motherhood; mothers; Muro, Italy; pregnant women; pro-life movement; unborn children

Prayers

Prayer I to...
Prayer II to...
Prayer III to...
Prayer IV to...

Storefront

Commercial Links

Images

Gallery of images of Saint Gerard [13 images, 164 kb]

Additional Information

Google Directory
A Treasury of Catholic Reading, by John Chapin
Hope in the Handerchief of a Saint, by Peter T Farrelly Jr
Catholic Encyclopedia, by J Magnier
For All The Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
New Catholic Dictionary

Translate

| | | |

Readings

The Most Blessed Sacrament is Christ made visible. The poor sick person is Christ again made visible.

-Saint Gerard Majella

---

I see in my neighbor the Person of Jesus Christ.

-Saint Gerard Majella

---

Consider the shortness of time, the length of eternity and reflect how everything here below comes to an end and passes by. Of what use is it to lean upon that which cannot give support?

Saint Gerard Majella

---

Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart?

Saint Gerard Majella

[RobbyS]

Plus the fact is IVF is a technique of animal husbandry. Kind of blurs the difference between a woman and a cow.

[RobbyS]

You are simply making an assertion that the Catholic CXhurch has no authority to absolve men of sin. You are entitled to your opinion, but it is no more than that.

[swmobuffalo]

"Catholic CXhurch has no authority to absolve men of sin. You are entitled to your opinion, but it is no more than that."

Show me in the scripture where they do and we'll talk.

[swmobuffalo]

Teaching is one thing, judging is something else. I see nothing in scripture that gives the "Church" the right or reason to judge this couple as being sinful. Show me in scripture where and I might change my mind.

[Coleus]

"thou shall not kill" for starters.

You kill embryos, children with their own DNA, when you use the IVF procedure. Usually 12 are created, 4 at a time are implanted, all 4 could die if one makes it the other 3 die, the rest are frozen indefinitely..

[Coleus]

The only absolution I need is from God and it's free for the asking. >>

tell me if and when God forgives your sins? How do know exactly which sin is forgiven and which sins are not?

[SuziQ]

Meanwhile, the Romeneskos have stopped practicing Catholicism.

It must not have meant much to them to begin with if her getting fired caused them to fall away. If she had been an INFORMED Catholic, she would have known what the Church taught. However there are many Catholics who ignore this teaching everyday because they want to have their own children, the same as many who ignore the Church's teaching on artificial contraception. They don't give any thought as to WHY the Church teaches what She does.

THis woman should have talked to her Pastor about this, if not before, then certainly after the babies were born.

[Clemenza]

I had priests/teachers who made Liberace look like John Wayne, a history teacher who was a notorious womanizer, and a gym teacher who received Lewinskis from my female classmates, all at a Catholic high school.

[SuziQ]

The Church should quietly re-instate her.

THE CHURCH didn't fire her. The principal did.

[SuziQ]

I don't understand why people are confused about NFP. Obviously EVERY sexual act between a married couple will not be procreative, but they should be unitive. If a couple is using NFP to avoid conception, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. They are working with God and each other, in abstaining from marital relations when they know, by the signs God gives women, that it is likely they will conceive. When they understand that it is no longer likely they will conceive, they will resume relations. In doing this they are working TOGETHER, as a couple, as God has planned. This is unity.

If however, a couple is using artificial means to avoid pregnancy, the unitive aspect has been destroyed, and they are not working with nature, but against it.

[RobbyS]

St. John 20, 23. of course.

[SuziQ]

Thanks for your awesome explanation. I'm always mystified when people think NFP is wrong because some people choose to use it to avoid pregnancy. It's simply using the signs God gives women to help them and their husbands decide when to express the mutual love with which God has Blessed them.

[SuziQ]

My understanding that a "procreative intent" is also required

I don't know where you learned that, but it's clearly wrong. Even John Paul II taught about the unitive aspects of sexual relations in marriage. Sometimes they're procreative as well, but they won't always be. You don't have to limit the sexual act in marriage to only those times you wish to conceive children. THAT would thwart the unitive aspects of marriage that God planned when he said "the two shall become one."

[Wizy]

Exactly, agree with the decision or not, all this couple had to do was keep their mouth shut about their business, and the church probably would never had questioned it. If she ran her mouth, knowing the doctrine of the church...she made the decision, not the church...she basically "forced their hand".

[SuziQ]

"Under the moral aspect procreation is deprived of its proper perfection when it is not willed as the fruit of the conjugal act, that is to say, of the specific act of the spouses' union

That still doesn't mean that a couple should ONLY have sexual relations when it is possible to conceive. It just means that the couple is OPEN to the gift of a child, and won't do anything by artificial means to cut themselves completely off from that gift.

If you are using natural means of family planning, but are open to the possibility of conception, you could be surprised from time to time, and as a faithful Catholic, you'll accept that child as a gift from God. If you've chosen to block conception by artificial means, you're rejecting, at all times, even the possibility of that gift, and that is sinful.

[Scotswife]

"THis woman should have talked to her Pastor about this, if not before, then certainly after the babies were born."

I know a couple who asked for advice from a deacon regarding the Church teaching on in-vitro.
They were told it was fine - and good luck with that!

They went ahead with it. Four or five embryos were inserted. Three managed to implant, and one died after a couple of weeks. That makes 2 to 3 dead embryos.
Then...there's the embryos kept frozen in case the procedure didn't work. They are still there after 4 years.
I don't know how many embryos they have in storage, but they don't plan on doing in-vitro again.

Now the husband has regrets and has since learned this was against Church teaching.