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Fr. Martin, in this thread, goes on to give a partial list of sins that should cause us to fear hell, and then concludes that a school should fire teachers either for all of these or none of these. Here's why I disagree:
Teaching at a Catholic school does not imply that the archdiocese has found the teacher to be sinless (a very surprising finding!) or that they've at least found the people with the least serious sins.
Teachers are fired for things that are not serious sins at all (e.g. persistent tardiness) if they interfere with their ability to teach. And persisting in a publicly known sin and denying it is sin does interfere with teaching.
A protestant religion teacher in a Catholic school, who denied that the Eucharist was Christ, could maaaaaybe not be personally guilty of blasphemy if they were ignorant of the truth, but it would be a terrible idea to keep them on staff!
Deciding who can teach is not about ranking the gravity of sins—it's about what interferes with the work of forming students to be Catholic. A private sin (like despising the poor) may never draw the attention of students or school, BUT...
That hardly means it's less serious! We fear sin because we fear hell and desire God. All of us sin in ways that do not endanger our jobs (secular or religious) but endanger our souls.
