Vatican's Openness Prompts Review of Policies that Led to Pregnant Gay Teacher's Firing

Barbara Webb, left, and Kristen Laseki, right, are expecting a baby. They’re legally married, but Webb’s pregnancy resulted in her termination at the all-girl Catholic high school where she has taught for nine years. (Screenshot: WJBK video)

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Catholic nuns at a Bloomfield Hills high school that fired a lesbian teacher over her nontraditional pregnancy are taking another look at policies that led to her dismissal.

Barbara Webb, a popular chemistry teacher at Marian High School, was fired last month after she told school administrators that she was 14 weeks pregnant. She offered to take a leave of absence until after she and her spouse’s child was born, but was given a choice of resigning and being fired.

Webb’s firing set off an international furor, with protests occurring both on the streets and online, and the firing has ignited an international furor as well. An online petition calling on the nuns to rethink their policies has garnered about 69,800 signatures to date.

That backlash, as well as a new era of openness from the Vatican, have prompted nuns at the Monroe-based Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which runs the school, to review its morality clause and other policies.

Sister Mary Jane Herb shared the news in a letter to alumni who developed the I Stand With Barb Webb facebook page created to support Webb. In it, Herb wrote:

“Our Church and Catholic schools are confronted with a complexity of issues that have not been faced in the past. Consequently, we need to have ongoing education and a new lens through which to view issues and situations that are emerging.

Pope Francis has brought a sense of hope to our lives and encourages us to look at our Church with new eyes. No, it is not likely that doctrine will change, however the Pope emphasizes that the values of mercy, inclusion and compassion need to be included in our response to complex situations.”

Before Herb’s letter, Webb said she had been contacted privately by another sister with the order, who “wanted to assure me some real discussions were going on,” Webb told The Observer & Eccentric.

“So I’m happy but not surprised about the letter,” Webb said. “Again, this is a testament to why Marian is so important to these alumnae and the students who are there now. They were taught to stand up to injustices and to be an advocate for a diverse world. To think someone down the road might have a different outcome than I did is a very rewarding feeling … hopefully this is a first step.”

Amber Mazza Cunnings, a 2001 Marian graduate living in Farmington, told the Detroit Free Press that she’s encouraged about the prospect of meaningful dialogue. The letter “shows that they’re willing to consider, to have a conversation and I think that’s the most important thing ... They obviously deliberated on this for a while.”

Another alum, Hilary Levey Friedeman of the Class of 1998, said the letter shows “someone was listening.”

“It was nice to finally get some sort of response,” said Friedeman, who now lives in Massachusetts. “The silence has been deafening from everyone associated with the dismissal, publicly from Marian High School and the IHM itself. …”

Herb will be meeting with Marian High School board members Wednesday, according to the Facebook page.