The Roman Catholic archdiocese in southwest Ohio is proposing a committee made up of teachers who would advise on future contracts that include morality clauses.
The idea has been in the planning stages since last spring, amid controversy over teaching contracts forbidding behavior the church regards as wrong in the 19-county Archdiocese of Cincinnati, according to spokesman Dan Andriacco.
The contract, which prohibits “homosexual lifestyles,” abortion, artificial insemination, and public support for any of those causes, has divided some of the region’s Catholics. The contract for the 2014-15 school year was drafted after the archdiocese in 2010 fired an unmarried teacher who became pregnant by artificial insemination. A federal court last year ruled in that teacher’s favor, ordering the archdiocese to pay her $171,000.