{"id":66008,"date":"2026-01-04T03:25:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/?p=66008"},"modified":"2026-01-04T03:25:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:25:36","slug":"cna-explains-when-can-catholic-employers-fire-employees-for-not-following-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/fr\/learn\/cna-explains-when-can-catholic-employers-fire-employees-for-not-following-the-church\/","title":{"rendered":"CNA explains: When can Catholic employers fire employees for not following the Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n null \/ Credit: Stephen Kiers\/Shutterstock<\/span>\n<\/div>\n

CNA Staff, Oct 8, 2025 \/ 06:00 am (CNA).<\/p>\n

A New Jersey teacher\u2019s dismissal from her Catholic school classroom over her role as a surrogate mother has raised the question of just when Catholic employers can dismiss workers for not adhering to the faith. <\/p>\n

The teacher, Jadira Bonilla, was put on paid administrative leave after school officials discovered that she had agreed to serve as a surrogate for another couple. She told a Philadelphia news station<\/a> that she had previously served as a surrogate for the same couple without incident while working at another Catholic school.<\/p>\n

Administrators at St. Mary Catholic School in Vineland \u201csaid I was possibly in violation of my contract and that I would be suspended or placed on administrative leave,\u201d the teacher told the news outlet. <\/p>\n

Bonilla \u201cis a valued teacher and one we hope will one day again teach in our school with the full knowledge of our faith, which guides our educational principles,\u201d the school told the media in a statement. <\/p>\n

Court rulings protect Catholic employers<\/h2>\n

L. Martin Nussbaum, an attorney who specializes in First Amendment and religious freedom protections and who serves as counsel for the Catholic Benefits Association, said there are \u201cmany protections for Catholic employers\u201d in the United States. <\/p>\n

The Catholic Benefits Association says on its website that it \u201cadvocates for and litigates in defense of our members\u2019 First Amendment rights to provide employee benefits and a work environment that is consistent with the Catholic faith.\u201d <\/p>\n

The organization notes that \u201cnew regulations, laws, legal outcomes, and legislation\u201d can affect how Catholic employers can do business, though Nussbaum said there are \u201ca number of very powerful protections\u201d for Catholic businesses in the U.S. <\/p>\n

It is unclear if Bonilla, the New Jersey teacher, has filed a lawsuit against the school over its policies, but Nussbaum said if she did, \u201cshe would probably file it under a discrimination lawsuit, under the basis of pregnancy, which is a protected class under some laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the school and other Catholic employers can cite multiple Supreme Court rulings in their defense, Nussbaum said. Among them is the landmark 2012 Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.<\/p>\n

In that decision the high court ruled unanimously that the First Amendment allows religious organizations to hire and fire ministers without regard to federal discrimination laws. A ruling in 2020\u2019s Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru further strengthened that principle. <\/p>\n

The rule applies to teachers as well, \u201cespecially if they\u2019re involved in helping inculcate the faith,\u201d Nussbaum said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[That\u2019s] the only reason Catholic schools exist,\u201d he noted. \u201cYou can hire a secular atheist to teach a child to read. But parents make tremendous sacrifices to put their children in Catholic schools, not only to read and write, but to transmit the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

More broadly, for decades U.S. case law has recognized the right to \u201cfreedom of association.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the Supreme Court\u2019s landmark 2000 ruling in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the court held that the government is not allowed to \u201ccompel [an] organization to accept members where such acceptance would derogate from the organization\u2019s expressive message.\u201d In that ruling, the court denied efforts by a gay man to force the Boy Scouts of America to allow him to be a scoutmaster. <\/p>\n

Nussbaum said that state laws can offer protection in addition to federal shields. In 2023, for instance, the New Jersey Supreme Court a statu\u00e9<\/a> that a \u201creligious tenets\u201d exception to a state nondiscrimination law allowed a Catholic school to fire a teacher who became pregnant out of wedlock.<\/p>\n

Nussbaum said there is \u201csome variation around the edges\u201d regarding state laws but that the federal rulings make religious protections \u201creally quite strong across all the states.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Catholic employers can take care to ensure they are within the law in hiring and firing decisions in part by outlining the religious dimensions and roles of jobs. \u201cThat should be articulated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The attorney said disputes over transgender identity and ideology have opened up new avenues for plaintiffs to potentially sue Catholic employers over religious employment decisions.<\/p>\n

But \u201cthe law is quite strong for vindicating the freedom of religious institutions to insist that those who are advancing the religious mission are in line with that mission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/266955\/cna-explains-when-can-catholic-employers-fire-employees-for-not-following-the-church<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

null \/ Credit: Stephen Kiers\/Shutterstock CNA Staff, Oct 8, 2025 \/ 06:00 am (CNA). A New Jersey teacher\u2019s dismissal from her Catholic school classroom over her role as a surrogate mother has raised the question of just when Catholic employers can dismiss workers for not adhering to the faith.\u00a0 The teacher, Jadira Bonilla, was put [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":73943,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"series":[],"class_list":["post-66008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian-news"],"mb":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/christianpure.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/CNA-explains-When-can-Catholic-employers-fire-employees-for-not-following-the-Church.webp?fit=800%2C533&quality=75&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53908,"url":"https:\/\/christianpure.com\/fr\/learn\/judge-rejects-motion-to-dismiss-lawsuit-blocking-catholic-trade-school-from-setting-up-shop\/","url_meta":{"origin":66008,"position":0},"title":"Judge rejects motion to dismiss lawsuit blocking Catholic trade school from setting up shop","author":"Christian Pure Team","date":"juillet 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A student workshop at The College of St. Joseph the Worker. \/ Credit: College of St. Joseph the Worker Washington, D.C. 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