Some right-wing groups in the Catholic church argue that any criticism of the Pope or the church hierarchy is tantamount to a serious attack on the teaching of the church. Writers in several right-wing Catholic publications have made-and continue to make-repeated calls for me to be fired. In their view, patriarchy is so constitutive of Catholicism that if a teacher speaks against it, the denominational character of the school is threatened. A more moderate attitude is that the expression of my views is within the legitimate debate presently taking place in the Catholic church on issues such as the role of women, contraception, and mandatory priestly celibacy. Such was the position adopted by the Director of Education of MSSB in his response to the only two letters of protest that were received in reaction the Toronto Star articles.

Another case touching on the rights of teachers to freedom of expression outside the classroom was resolved by the courts while mine was in process. The case of Malcolm Ross, a teacher accused of anti-semitism, was adjudicated by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in 1993. The judgment stated that a teacher's status as a role model did not limit freedom of expression outside the classroom: "True, he [Ross] was a teacher and, as such, his views may be thought to have an authority they might not otherwise achieve. ...Teachers do indeed enjoy a high status in our society and have a unique opportunity to influence youthful minds. Having said that, however, the sanction, curtailment of Mr. Ross' freedom of expression, must be considered in the context of the evidence. As noted, it has never been suggested that he used his classroom or school property to further his views."² Though the substance of Ross' views may be abhorrent, this case is important in establishing that opinions expressed by a teacher outside the classroom do not necessarily have a negative impact on students.

Despite this encouraging precedent. my case was in no way straightforward. The public expression of the views I held crystallized the debate between the right-wing conservative ethos prevailing in the church hierarchy and the growing presence and acceptance of a more liberal theology among the laity and in the Catholic school system. Under the influence of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), a more inclusive! vision of the Catholic Church emerged which gave birth to new approaches to Catholicism, open to liberations and feminist perspectives. As a result, many lay people were inspired to undertake serious study of theology and this new generation of theologically sophisticated lay people emerged as the heads of religion departments in Catholic high schools.

There has been a backlash against this from the conservative and right-wing faction of the Catholic church. There is strong suspicion that the two letters received by the Board in reaction to my article were from members of one or another of the right-wing groups that have sprung up in the church with an agenda parallel to fundamentalists in other branches of Christianity. Opus Dei, Campaign Life, Focolare, etc., all share an outlook that is authoritarian in operation, opposed to feminism and gay rights, and strongly suspicious of any kind of collective effort to interfere with free market capitalism. Members of these groups often seek election as school trustees and, in Toronto at least, these reactionary viewpoints are definitely more in sync with the conservative ethos which prevails in the top echelons of the church.

This conservative wave was strengthened with the rise to power of Aloysius Ambrozic, appointed as Bishop of the diocese of Toronto by Pope John Paul II in 1990 (six years after the Davis government passed Bill 30 granting full public funding to Catholic schools). Ambrozic was not the choice that other Canadian bishops had put forward as successor to Emmett Cardinal Carter in the most influential diocese in English Canada. But his conservative views, his rigid adherence to Church rules, and his distrust of the Second Vatican Council and the new liberal theologies made him, in John Paul's eyes, an ideal candidate to crack the whip of orthodoxy in a city viewed in Rome as a hotbed of feminism and gay rights.