St. Joe’s is being sued for alleged workplace discrimination in a lawsuit filed by Noel Koenke, a former director of music for Campus Ministry. Koenke, who openly identifies as gay, claims in the lawsuit she was harassed during her time at St. Joe’s because of her sexual orientation.
Koenke was hired at St. Joe’s in July 2010. She was “constructively discharged” from the university in November 2017, which, in legal terms, means employment conditions are so intolerable that the employee feels compelled to resign.
Koenke filed the lawsuit in October 2019. St. Joe’s responded with a motion to dismiss the complaint in December 2019. Koenke said she decided to file the lawsuit against St. Joe’s in part because she wants to ensure the discrimination she said she endured does not happen again at the university.
“This is a much bigger story than mine,” Koenke said. “Mine is one amongst many people that are going through or have chosen to hide their lives to keep their jobs for the same reason and it has got to change.”
As director of music, Koenke was responsible for leading the chapel choir and coordinating music at all events in the Chapel of St. Joseph. She said when she was hired in 2010 the university knew she identified as gay and her sexuality was not an issue.
According to Koenke, it wasn’t until a few weeks before her summer wedding in 2013 that Thomas Sheibley, director of Campus Ministry and her direct supervisor, approached her about her sexual orientation.
During the meeting, Sheibley asked Koenke to “exercise discretion” about her marriage and overall sexual orientation, Koenke said in the lawsuit, which included removing St. Joe’s colleagues from her list of Facebook friends. The lawsuit details other instances in which Koenke said she felt compelled to keep quiet about her marriage.
Koenke said she was profoundly affected by being required to remain closeted while at work. She said she lived in a state of anxiety of not being discreet enough about her sexual orientation.
“It was slowly killing me, killing my soul, this authentic part of myself,” Koenke said.
The lawsuit details the “immense psychological toll” Koenke said she experienced.
Koenke filed a formal complaint to the Office of Human Resources in July 2013.In the complaint, Koenke said she believed what she experienced was in violation of the “Saint Joseph’s University Policy Prohibiting Discrimination, Harassment and Retaliation.”
The policy at the time of Koenke’s employment stated: “Harassment on the basis of one’s sexual orientation can also constitute discrimination on the basis of sex. For an incident to constitute harassment, it must be offensive to a reasonable person.”
In response to her formal complaint, Koenke received a letter on Aug. 5, 2013 from Sharon O’Grady Eisenmann, former vice president for Human Resources. According to the letter, which was obtained by The Hawk, Koenke’s experiences did not qualify as a violation of university policy.
Eisenmann wrote: “As a Campus Minister/Liturgy and Music Coordinator, your duties in this position are almost exclusively ministerial; that is, you are responsible for the University’s most important Catholic religious services … In the context of this ministerial role and position, your
marriage to another person of the same sex presents a direct conflict with the established teaching of the Catholic Church, which does not endorse or recognize such marriages as part of the Church’s foundational doctrines.”
To Koenke’s specific questions about whether she could have a picture of her wife on her desk or invite her wife to join her at university functions, Eisenmann wrote that the university did not have a position on these questions.
Six days later on Aug. 11, 2013, Koenke attempted to commit suicide and was hospitalized. Koenke partially attributes the suicide attempt to job stress, indicating her workplace as a trigger on hospital documents, according to the lawsuit.
“I wanted to die,” Koenke told The Hawk. “I didn’t know how to choose between a career I loved and dedicated my life to and having to choose to be my authentic self.”
In her lawsuit, Koenke is asking for St. Joe’s to reimburse her for the hospitalizations and to implement policies further protecting LGBTQIA+ community members at St. Joe’s.
According to the lawsuit, one of St. Joe’s main defenses in response to Koenke’s lawsuit is “ministerial exception,”which allows Catholic institutions to operate outside of anti-discrimination laws in order to uphold their religious freedom.
“On these facts, Ms. Koenke attempts to state claims of workplace discrimination under Title IX. For many reasons, these claims fail, including the fact that she was not discriminated against while working at the University,” the university said in their motion to dismiss.
Sarah Gordon, Ph.D., J.D., a law professor with expertise in religion at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, said ministerial exception is more applicable to certain departments of the university.
“If the person is not eligible in the religion or the organizations eyes to be a minister of the faith, then they may decide to terminate them as a clergy member,” Gordon said.
In St. Joe’s motion to dismiss, the university claimed the ministerial exception should apply to this cause even in the absence of a claim for discriminatory discharge.
“Were this court to permit Ms. Koenke’s claims to proceed, there would be no alternative but to intrude upon Saint Joseph’s religious freedom, thus trampling its right, as a Catholic, Jesuit employer, to the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment,” the university said in their motion to dismiss.
James Martin, S.J., an advocate for the LGBT community in the Catholic church, did not want to comment on ongoing litigation, but said in general it “would be a tragedy” if ministerial exception was used to exclude the LGBT community from the Church.
“The problem is that there are many, many groups of employees who don’t follow church teaching—straight married couples who use birth control, for example,” Martin said in an email to The Hawk. “It’s being used against LGBT people selectively, which means it’s being used in a discriminatory way.”
Justin Robinette, J.D., Koenke’s attorney, said the ministerial exception does not apply in this case because of the alleged harassment Koenke faced while she was employed.
“The university could have said, ‘We are not going to hire you because you’re gay.’ The university could have also said, ‘You’re fired because you’re gay,’” Robinette said. “What you don’t get to do is hold the position open to a gay person, give it to them and then subject them on a daily basis to harassment.”
According to Koenke, Sheibley told her that her discretion was necessary to avoid tension between St. Joe’s and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Catholic doctrine states that having a homosexual orientation is “okay,” according to Thomas Brennan, S.J., associate professor and chair of the English department, who came out publicly as a gay priest many years ago. But he said that according to church doctrine, “acting on that sexual orientation sexually, even in a committed relationship with another person of the same sex, is not acceptable ever.”
Brennan said he has never experienced discrimination from his superiors at the university. He also said he always felt that Campus Ministry, and specifically Sheibley, have “been a strong ally of LGBT people.”
In response to a request for comment from The Hawk, Sheibley said he could not comment on ongoing litigation, but wrote, “I will say without reservation that Campus Ministry welcomes all students regardless of sexual orientation into our programs, and that we strive to make SJU a safe and welcoming place for all members of our community.”
Maggie Nealon ’20, president of SJUPride, said Campus Ministry collaborated with SJUPride for retreats and an LGBT Unity mass. However, she said the university’s treatment of Koenke has caused her to question their support.
“If they couldn’t provide that care for their own employees, would they provide it for students too?” Nealon said. “It makes you wonder if it’s true support or if it’s performative support.”
In response to questions from The Hawk, Gail Benner, public relations and media director at St. Joe’s, wrote that she was unable to provide detailed commentary on pending or active litigation and provided the following statement:
“Saint Joseph’s University is a mission-driven Catholic university founded in the Jesuit tradition. We are committed to offering an inclusive environment for all students and employees, including members of the LGBT community. Consistent with this mission, which values and fosters a respect for the whole person, Ms. Koenke was a respected member of the SJU community whose professional contributions as a campus minister were acknowledged and valued.”
Benner declined to answer questions from The Hawk regarding the university’s official policy on openly gay employees, citing ongoing litigation.
Koenke said that even though St. Joe’s has promoted itself as an “LGBT friendly campus,” her experiences prove otherwise.
“While there is that attempt, they are definitely falling short,” Koenke said. “In terms of my case, it is unbelievable to me that there is a justification for doing that. How is that okay? How is it okay to justify, especially a person in a university that is exemplifying love and justice and social justice and LGBT equality and all of that? How does this happen?”
