DENVER (LifeSiteNews) — The Archdiocese of Denver said it fired a lesbian who had a teaching job at a Catholic school after finding out about her homosexual relationship.
Maggie Barton openly lives a homosexual lifestyle and as a result cannot teach at All Souls Catholic School, according to the archdiocese.
“The Archdiocese of Denver terminated her employment from the parish school in January after discovering she is in a same-sex relationship and discussing the matter with her,” Catholic News Agency reported.
“The school found it necessary to conclude the teacher’s employment because she did not honor the commitments she agreed to in her contract with the school,” the archdiocese told CNA. The school “learned that she intends to persist in violating the standards she previously agreed to uphold,” the news service reported.
The contract includes a promise by employees to “[refrain] from taking any public position or conducting himself or herself in a manner that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.”
Barton has since become more outspoken about her lifestyle choice and claims her disordered desires are aligned with Catholicism.
“It is the faith I was raised in, and I wanted to teach in a Catholic school because I wanted to share those values that I learned and the experience that I had with future students,” Barton told a local CBS News affiliate.
She said she does not understand why her homosexual relationship contradicts the teachings of the Church.
“I have a hard time understanding how being in a same-sex relationship or someone’s sexual orientation hinders your ability to do that,” Barton told CBS Colorado.
The Catholic Church teaches that persons with homosexual desires are to live a life of chastity. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in a statement approved by Pope Francis, rejected in March 2021 the idea of blessing same-sex couples.
The Catholic Church teaches that homosexuality is one of the four sins that cry to heaven for vengeance. The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that “basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that ‘homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.’ They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved” (CCC 2357).
Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila has been outspoken in support of Catholic orthodoxy. For example, he supported a call for President Joe Biden, a professed Catholic who supports the LGBT and pro-abortion agenda, to refrain from taking Communion.
He also rebuked Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego for pushing a confusing message of “radical inclusion” for LGBT individuals who refuse to live chastely and instead openly embraced a sinful lifestyle.
“Jesus never waters down his teaching, nor does he appeal to conscience; he gives testimony to the truth,” Archbishop Aquila wrote. Christ’s message is “radical, and it goes out to everyone, but is not received by everyone because of the cost of discipleship.”
The Catholic Church teaches (Code of Canon Law, can. 915) that Catholics who are “obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion.”