It would be preferable if they and their partners live some distance away from the school in which they teach, he suggests.

Comensoli made the comments on Monday when he was giving evidence to a Senate inquiry ahead of federal government plans to strip schools of the right to expel LGBTI pupils.

Australia is currently debating the issue of religious school exemptions, with the Government aiming to extend anti-LGBTI discrimination protections to students and staff.

At present religious schools can dismiss employees because they're gay or transgender and expel pupils who express same-sex attraction. LGBTI campaigners want to see this change.

Responding to a question about whether a gay teacher at a Catholic school could marry without losing their job, Comensoli said it would depend on how visible their relationship was at the school and whether the teacher would still publicly support the school's teachings.

He explained schools did not care whether staff identified as gay, lesbian or transgender, but were concerned about "the public nature of what someone might say or do in that regard.

"They've made it known privately to the principal that they're in a same-sex relationship, but the person themselves is quite willing to speak publicly and act publicly within the school context in accordance with the mission and identity - there would be no question asked there I think.

"It's not just a matter of one's attribute - it's what one does with it that makes a difference."

Comensoli said the problem occurs "when it [one's attribute] becomes an act of advocacy."

In relation to LGBTQI pupils, Comensoli explained Catholic schools would not expel a student just because of their sexual orientation.

He said it's important for Catholic schools to maintain laws that would protect their capacity to teach the Christian understanding of sexual ethics and marriage according to the Catholic faith tradition.

Frank FitzGerald, executive officer at Catholic Secondary Principals Australia, supported Comensoli's views on advocacy, while others took a stronger line.

Mark Spencer, executive officer at Christian Schools Australia, argued teachers needed to uphold a school's values "completely and authentically," including in their private lives.

"We are looking for staff to actually have that consistency across the whole of their life - around what they believe, what they say they believe and how they act and behave," he said.

Others took the opposite perspective and told the inquiry they would like the law to change.

Assistant federal secretary of the Independent Education Union, Anthony Odgers, said many staff and students at faith-based schools who fear persecution and suppress their sexual orientation, gender identity and/or their marital status are being harmed as a result.

Source

• Sydney Morning Herald
• Gay Star News
• Image: YouTube

Comensoli will be installed as archbishop on 1 August. He has been the Bishop of Broken Bay in New South Wales for the past three years.

When he is installed, he will take over from recently-retired Archbishop Denis Hart at Melbourne's St Patrick's Cathedral.

It is the largest archdiocese in Australia, with a Catholic population of 1.1 million people.

Hart, who was also President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference until May this year, says Comensoli is "generous, gifted and faith-filled" and has experience in three dioceses.

Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, who replaced Hart as the new conference President, says Comensoli has "the gifts and energies that his new mission would require.

"Archbishop-elect Peter has a good mind, an engaging personality and the strong pastoral sense needed in our largest diocese at a complex time like this," Coleridge says.

"He's a man who can listen and a man who can speak not only to Catholic people, but to the wider community as well."

Comensoli says he is humbled Pope Francis had chosen him and recognised "the challenge he has placed before me to lead God's people in Melbourne tenderly, mercifully and joyfully.

"The life of Christian discipleship is a precious gift, developed through hearing and responding to God's call," he says.

"In accepting this call to be a new missionary among God's people of the Archdiocese of Melbourne, I readily acknowledge the great responsibility entrusted to me, along with the frailties I carry."

In acknowledging the "great responsibility" that comes with his new position, Comensoli also spoke of sex abuse and the need to right wrongs.

"I am deeply aware of the painful witness you bear because of the crimes committed in the Church against the most innocent, our children and the vulnerable.

"I share the bewilderment and anger you feel at the failure of Church leaders to believe victims and to respond to them with justice and compassion.

"This is not the way of Jesus Christ. It is our solemn shared duty to right the grievous wrongs of the past and ensure that the future is very different."

Source

• The Tablet
• News.com.au
• The Age
• Image: ccsp.catholic.edu.au