Professor Caterina Bonci, a 38-year-old religion instructor described in Italy's leading newspaper, Corriere della Sera, as a "leggy, long-haired blonde," has caused a major sensation, getting axed by the Catholic Church from her position in state-run schools. Bonci said Church authorities in the seaside town of Fano, Italy, decided she was just too attractive and dressed too sexy to teach religion after 14 years on the job.
"They shouldn't treat me like this after 14 years of teaching," Bonci said. "It's pure nastiness."The headmaster at her former school, Father Alcide Baldelli, has said that some parents and teachers had complained about Bonci because she would "show up in a mini-skirt."
Bonci says she had never worn mini-skirts to work, and had "the right to wear a bikini if I go to the beach, and to wear a skirt the same length as thousands of other women…I am not a nun."
However, The Catholic Church states that it sacked the Professor because she is divorced. Local media quoted Giorgio Paolucci, lawyer for the diocese of Fano, as saying that she was fired because she was divorced and so should not be teaching religion for a Church that does not recognize divorce. According to Paolucci, the version supplied from the woman to the local press is "wrong and misleading".
"The diocese’s motivation is that she lacked suitability for the instruction of the Catholic religion", declared the lawyer.
Aesthetic Qualities Not Desirable?
Bonci said she separated from her husband in 1995, divorced in 2000 and that both events had not affected her job or raised eyebrows from her employers at the time. She said that she has never hidden her divorce from Church authorities, dresses down when teaching and defended her right to dress how she likes in her private life.
“I don’t see what it matters if a teacher is good looking or not as long she is qualified,” she told Reuters by telephone. “In school, I dressed normally. In my private life, I have every right to dress any way I want.” She added, “When a woman is considered too sexy and attractive in a small town it becomes a big thing.”Media Frenzy
Bonci has been all over the Italian media demanding to go back to her job teaching religion to children in state schools on behalf of the diocese. Even Italy’s Corriere della Sera gave readers a break from pages of stories about scandal at the Bank of Italy and government bickering with the teasing headline: “Teacher in mini-skirt fired by diocese.”
Gawking Fathers
Bonci said reports that fathers accompanied their children to school so they could look at her meant little to her as long as the children came to class.
She added, "I have always been attacked by my female colleagues and by the rest of the staff because of my attractiveness." Bonci continued, "And if you consider that at our parent-teacher meetings it was always the fathers who came to see me, one can see why I have so often been at the center of attention and a target for gossip."
She has now become a minor celebrity on the Adriatic coast and national television talk shows are queuing up to interview her, but she says she wants only one thing.
“I would like my job back. I think it is my right,” she said. “For this job I have sacrificed and have lived a secluded life in order to attain the demanded morality, and this how they repay me".
Your Turn
Blogiorno asks, “What do you think?”
Should divorcee Caterina Bonci be allowed to teach religion? Do you believe she was fired for being too attractive? Can a woman be “sexy” and still professional, or would it be better to forgo that to squelch accusations of impropriety? Should a Christian woman even aspire to be "sexy"?
Leave your comments! Grazie mille!
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3 comments:
I think getting her job back would depend on the reasons behind her divorce. After all, divorce is acceptable in some circumstances. There should be some modesty in her dress at work though, that's for sure.
I don't see anything wrong with her teaching, even if it's religion class. Just because God made her beautiful shouldn't mean that she has to be punished for it.
If she is dressing properly, as she claims to be (not wearing mini-skirts), then I see no reason why there is an issue.
I have the same problem at the grocery store. I was recently kicked out of Albertsons for being "too hot of a mom!" Outrageous. In truth, though, sounds like there are a bunch of $%&!# that are a little jealous over there. She's single Blogiorno!
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