In Crisitello v. St. Theresa School, a former teacher at a Catholic school in New Jersey (Archdiocese of Newark) sued the school after she was fired.

The Archdiocese of Newark has operated St. Theresa School, for families in the town of Kenilworth, New Jersey, for more than sixty years; since the late 1970s, the school has been run by the Salesian Sisters, who are committed to offering their students a faith-centered education inspired by the teachings of St. John Bosco. To ensure that the Catholic footprint remains orthodox, therefore, St. Theresa School, as indeed all other schools in the Archdiocese, requires that all its staff respect and promote the teachings of the Catholic Church, and, specifically, the school enforces the “Archdiocese of Newark Policies on Professional and Ministerial Conduct,” official standards containing a code of ethics that requires employees to “conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the discipline, norms and teachings of the Catholic Church.” for this very reason, in fact, all staff must sign an agreement committing to abide by the teachings of the Catholic Church in both their professional and private lives, serving as an example of faith to both students and the community.

Victoria Crisitello began working at St. Theresa School as a teaching assistant in 2011, and in 2014 Mother Lee, the school’s principal, offered her a full-time contract as an art teacher; at that time, however, Crisitello stated that she was pregnant, unmarried, and had no plans to marry: as a result, not only was the contract she already had renewed, but the offer of full-time employment was also rescinded.

The district court sided with the school, holding that Crisitello was not fired for her pregnancy, per se, but for violating the school’s conduct policy. Following Crisitello’s appeal, which had invoked the First Amendment, the Court of Appeals overturned that decision, ruling that the legislation did not expressly prohibit premarital relationships as a condition of employment at the school: they certainly constituted a sin, but one that the Church itself condoned through confession, and thus could not be seen as something contrary to Catholic doctrine.

 The New Jersey Supreme Court, however, in a unanimous opinion, held that, according to legislation (New Jersey Statutes Annotated 10:5-12-a), “the exception relating to religious principles allowed St. Theresa’s to require its employees, as a condition of employment, to adhere to Catholic law”; Judge Solomon wrote in the majority opinion that “it is undisputed” that the school had a right to adhere to the religious principles of the Catholic Church, so that the dismissal fell within the New Jersey law’s exception against discrimination under which “it will never be unlawful” for a religious entity to follow the tenets of its faith “in establishing and maintaining employment relationships.”

“Because the legislature has thus expressly prescribed an exception to liability under the anti-discrimination law based on a religious institution’s reliance on the tenets of its faith in setting the criteria for hiring and firing its employees, the Court agrees with the school that the religious principles exception is a valid and decisive defense argument.

Crisitello, a practicing Catholic and a graduate of St. Theresa School, was well aware that working for that school would require adherence to Catholic doctrine, which she had instead knowingly violated, and thus the dismissal is fully legitimate and is upheld.

Stefano Testa Bappenheim