I was baptized Catholic. I was raised Catholic. I was confirmed Catholic. I stopped practicing the faith when I went to college, not out of principle but more that I found other things to do on Sunday mornings. Nonetheless, I still have some residual feelings for the Church.

That is why I keep writing about and excoriating its stupid medieval behavior. The latest example is this: a highly-regarded teacher at a Catholic school in Fort Wayne, IN has been fired for undergoing in vitro fertilization treatment in an attempt to get pregnant. Unsurprisingly, she’s a little peeved about losing her job for something she doesn’t feel is a firable offense. Thus, she’s suing the diocese. Among the reasons:

Herx says the school’s priest called her a “grave, immoral sinner” and told her she should have kept mum about her fertility treatments because some things are “better left between the individual and God,” the complaint said.

Well, Father, she didn’t keep quiet because she wanted to keep her employer informed as to why she might need to miss some work time. That’s hardly reprehensible.

But wait, it gets more egregious.

The diocese responded, saying it “views the core issue raised in this lawsuit as a challenge to the diocese’s right, as a religious employer, to make religious based decisions consistent with its religious standards on an impartial basis.”

In its statement, diocese officials said that “the church promotes treatment of infertility through means that respect the right to life, the unity of marriage, and procreation brought about as the fruit of the conjugal act. There are other infertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, which are not morally licit according to Catholic teaching.”

The statement adds that teachers working in the diocese are required to “have a knowledge and respect for the Catholic faith, and abide by the tenets of the Catholic Church.”

You damned fools, the reason she’s undergoing IVF is because she wants to have a child and the “fruit of the conjugal act” hasn’t worked. How do you propose she get pregnant? Immaculate Conception? That, according to your own teachings, has happened only once in history. Your policy in this area is idiotic and contradictory.

This reinforces my belief that when I left the Church I was smarter than I knew.

Pierce has more, including a wonderful quote from John Paul I on the occasion of the birth of the very first “test-tube baby”:

“From every side the press is sending its congratulations to the English couple and best wishes to their baby girl. In imitation of God, who desires and loves human life, I too offer my best wishes to the baby girl. As for her parents, I do not have any right to condemn them; subjectively, if they have acted with the right intention and in good faith, they may even obtain great merit before God for what they have decided on and asked the doctors to carry out.”