Dupage Policy Journal

St. Procopius Abbey will no longer oversee Benet Academy after the school’s board of directors re-extended a girls’ lacrosse coaching offer to a woman in a same sex-marriage.

“Events in recent months have been an occasion for the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey to examine their future relationship with Benet Academy,” Chancellor Abbot Austin G. Murphy, O.S.B. and Board Chairman Dennis Flynn said in a statement. “After much deliberation, the monks as a community have discerned that they no longer have the resources needed for the governance and oversight of the Academy.”

Radio host Dan Proft has been among those speaking out on the issue, recently taking to Facebook to post “today, Benet Academy’s board and the Benedictines will announce it’s no longer a Catholic high school and identitarian politics is more important than a faith-based education. All it took was a few egomaniacal board members and a lacrosse coach to end the school because people with the power to preserve the school didn’t want to exercise their power.”

Back in September, school officials announced Amanda Kammes, an alumnae of the Lisle Catholic high school, had been hired as coach, reversing an earlier decision that followed public outcry expressing opposition to the move.

In a WGN-TV interview , school board officials defended their decision by reasoning “the school's board determined that Ms. Kammes' background and experience made her the right candidate for the position. The board has heard from members of the Benet community on all sides of this issue over the past several days. Going forward we will look for opportunities for dialogue in our community about how we remain true to our Catholic mission while meeting people where they are in their personal journey through life. For now, we hope that this is the first step in healing the Benet community."

Murphy wrote on the school’s website “the matter raises the question of what a Catholic high school should require from those who work with and from its students. In particular, is it necessary that the witness of their public lives not be in opposition to Catholic moral teaching? I believe this requirement is necessary and, therefore am deeply troubled by the school’s decision.”

In their latest statement, both Murphy and Flynn continued to work with the school in some capacity toward reaching its goals.

“Currently, alternatives for the Academy’s governance are being studied,” they added. “In the meantime, the Abbey will continue its role in the governance of the high school. The goal is that Benet Academy will continue to operate with an emphasis on academic excellence and Catholic identity within the Benedictine tradition.”