Teachers and staff working at dozens of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Oakland will have to sign off on a new morality clause in their contracts to keep their jobs. It’s small paragraph that dictates behavior in both their professional and personal lives.

“In both the TEACHER’S personal and professional life, the TEACHER is expected to model and promote behavior in conformity with the teaching of the Roman Catholic faith in matters of faith and morals, and to do nothing that tends to bring discredit to the SCHOOL or to the Diocese of Oakland.”

That might be a problem for some teachers and staff, given that they’re not Catholic or they’ve married their same-sex spouse or because they covet their neighbor’s house.

Such language wouldn’t have been much of a problem decades ago, when most parochial or independent Catholic schools were run by nuns and priests. But these days, there are atheist, gay, lesbian and transgender teachers, and others who hold beliefs or act in ways contrary to Catholic doctrine.

Diocese officials, however, say the new language resulted from a meeting of California bishops in which they “realized the importance of spelling out the mission of the Catholic educator,” according to a March 15 letter to school staff from Rev. Michael Barber, Oakland bishop.

School employees were encouraged to read the new contract carefully.

But the diocese said the new language wasn’t that different from that in the old contract, which “any conduct that tends to bring discredit to the School or Diocese” as a violation of regulations.

“We don’t see a marked change in the language of the contract, only a clarification of what the Philosophy of Catholic education is and what are the expectations of a Catholic teacher representing the Church,” said Mike Brown, diocese spokesman. “The old contract specifically referenced ‘conduct in accord with Catholic standards.’ The new contract underscores this point with no change in what has always been the importance of teaching and abiding by Catholic principles.”

It wasn’t an effort to remove any individuals from schools, Brown said. Increasingly, personal and professional lives are merging via social media and this is in part an acknowledgement of that, he said.

“There’s no attempt to categorize individuals,” he said. “It’s not a witch hunt and it’s not a litmus test.”

Still there were apparently rumblings at some of the 54 East Bay schools falling under the diocese, according to some close to the situation, although it was unclear whether anyone would be leaving because of it.

School staff members are expected to receive their new contracts on April 15 and have until May 1 to sign them.

— Jill Tucker