Nov 16, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Yesterday morning a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed against Ursuline Academy, a Catholic all-girls school in Willmington, Delaware, for having fired a teacher who supported, ran and signed a pro-abortion newspaper ad applauding the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. The former teacher, Michele Curay-Cramer, also sued the diocese of Wilmington and its bishop.
"Short of a declaration that the Pope should pass draft encyclicals through the courts for approval,” said Judge Kent A. Jordan, “it is hard to conceive of a more obvious violation of the free exercise of the rights of the Catholic Church or a clearer case of inappropriate entanglement of church and state."
Judge Jordan added that "it is not the place of this or any other court to say what system of beliefs constitutes "true" Catholicism or makes for a "good" Catholic. Ours,” he affirmed, “is a system which, wonderfully, forbids any intrusion of the sort."
Barry Willoughby, the attorney who represented the school said that even though the judge’s decision allows some room for other arguments to be made in the state court system, the suit is finished in the federal court system.
“Obviously we’re extremely pleased,” Willoughby said. “It’s a major victory for religious freedom in schools.”