Holy Family Former Teacher Says School Censored Article

BROOMFIELD, CO – A former Holy Family English teacher and adviser for the school paper spoke out Thursday, telling the Denver Post that the school principal demoted her last year and blocked publication of an article asking why girls were no longer allowed to be altar servers at the school.

Traci Mumm told the Post she has left her job at the private school and no longer fears retaliation from Holy Family Principal Matt Hauptly. She said Hauptly threatened her job and blocked publication of the Christmas edition if the paper ran a student-written article titled "Where Are The Girls?"

The article quoted the new school priest, Father Joseph McLagan, defending his recent decision that girls would no longer be allowed to serve at the altar during Mass.

“I’ve chosen not to allow girls, not to their exclusion, but to allow men to continue in the tradition of the liturgy,” McLagan was quoted as saying. “I would like to see the men be active in their faith in a way it’s very hard for them to be.”

A statement from the Archdiocese defended the private school's right to pick what is published in the school newspaper and said the article "implied" the erroneous idea that Federal Title IX protection applied to religious ceremonies like Mass.

Mumm said she resigned her position, where she had taught for four years and been faculty adviser for the school paper for two. She now teaches at a public school in Erie. A Catholic, she told reporter Elizabeth Hernandez that allegations from a grand jury report in Pennsylvania about sexual misdeeds and coverups by priests caused her to speak out.

“I understand as a private school, you don’t have First Amendment protection, but I still think it’s part of our role as people in society and as faithful members of our church to ask questions,” Mumm said. “And why can’t girls be altar servers? Is that such a bad question to ask? I have to be fired over it? That’s where we are as a church?”

Read the article in the Denver Post.

Image via ChiccoDodiFC/Shutterstock

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