BELMONT, N.C. — Belmont Abbey College says it never would consider getting into the business of paying for abortions, contraception and sterilization.

Yet for a brief, unspecified period in late 2007, that is exactly what the Catholic university was offering — unknowingly — through the healthcare policy provided to its faculty and staff.

College President William Thierfelder and Chancellor Abbott Placid Solari canceled the provisions immediately after their discovery. Now that action has the Benedictine-run North Carolina college in legal wranglings with eight of its employees.

No matter the outcome of any legal action, said Thierfelder, Belmont Abbey College never will pay for such procedures.

“I think you have to stand strong and say this is not something you compromise on,” said Thierfelder, a former executive of York Barbell Co. before assuming Belmont Abbey’s presidency in 2003. “We would close the school before we could compromise on this. That’s not idle talk. That’s the fact. I don’t think it will come to that, but I think that’s how far it would go.”

In a letter to faculty, staff, students and alumni on Feb. 12, Thierfelder wrote that “it is the clear, consistent, incontrovertible, public, official and authoritative teaching of the Roman Catholic Church that abortion, contraception and voluntary sterilization are actions which are intrinsically wrong and should not be undertaken because of their very nature. As a Roman Catholic institution, Belmont Abbey College is not able to and will not offer nor subsidize medical services that contradict the clear teaching of the Catholic Church.”

The controversy began in early December after Belmont Abbey’s health insurance provider, Wellpath, changed policy cost and structure for the college’s approximately 200 faculty and staff.

A new faculty member reading the policy in detail discovered that the plan covered abortion, contraception and sterilization. The faculty member called Thierfelder and informed him of the coverage. Thierfelder notified Abbot Solari. The president and chancellor immediately directed Wellpath to remove the coverage from its medical plans.

But how did they become part of the Catholic university’s policy in the first place?

No one at the college or at Wellpath has been able to determine that, or to say how long the coverage was being provided. Part of the confusion stems from a turnover in Belmont Abbey’s human resources office.

“During that change, that turnover, the policy was put in,” Thierfelder said. “It wasn’t read carefully, and so that was in there.”

Thierfelder also can’t say for sure whether any claims had been made on the procedures.

“My latest understanding, but I don’t have documentation in front of me, is that there wasn’t,” he said. “But I don’t know that for sure. That’s why I think it wasn’t in place for a long time.”

Thierfelder also addressed the lack of consultation when canceling the policies.

“The reason you have consultation is if you’re consulting to come to a conclusion about something,” he said. “There was no conclusion to come to, other than this is not possible. We could inform, but we really couldn’t consult about it.”

The informing began in earnest on Jan. 18 when Abbot Solari addressed the issue for nearly 30 minutes to nearly all 200 of the college’s faculty and staff. Behind him was the college’s entire monastic community of nearly 20 monks, “clearly signifying the importance and their solidarity and support Abbot Placid had in the comments he was making,” said Thierfelder.

Thierfelder said the “vast majority” of the crowd supported the college’s action. He also cited support from students with whom he has discussed the matter, from fellow administrators of Catholic universities and from e-mails sent by alumni and others.

“It has been overwhelming,” he said. “I would say it’s like 150 positive to one negative kind of thing. It’s just been incredibly positive. I’ve only maybe received three e-mails of people that either felt it wasn’t right or it was discriminatory or something along those lines.’

Not everyone on campus is in agreement with Thierfelder, though. Eight faculty members have demanded that the policies be reinstated and have filed complaints with the North Carolina Department of Insurance and with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Thierfelder would not identify the eight beyond saying that six of them were men.

Belmont Abbey responded to the North Carolina Department of Insurance that as a religious organization it is exempt from having to provide such coverage. “We are not telling people what to do,” said Thierfelder. “It’s a question of what can we subsidize, and as a Catholic college, we cannot subsidize something that is in direct contradiction to our faith and to the Church.”

The claim of religious exemption was forwarded to the complainant on Jan. 25. On Feb. 4 the National Women’s Law Center of Washington, D.C., requested that the state office reconsider its finding. If the department does, the college has asked that its counsel be allowed to address the issue.

The EEOC filings claim that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the change in insurance benefits was discriminatory based on religion or sex. Yet, noted Ken Davison, Belmont Abbey’s vice president of college relations, “The same benefit package is offered to all employees of the college, regardless of their sex or religion. There clearly is no discrimination.”

The college has received an extension to reply to the EEOC complaint and hopes to send that soon. The National Women’s Law Center in a Jan. 16 letter to the college threatened a lawsuit against Belmont Abbey on behalf of the eight people who filed the EEOC complaints. As of the time the Register went to press, no lawsuit had been filed.

The “abortion eight” did not answer the Register’s questions for this story.

“Belmont Abbey College is providing all prescription drugs its male employees need, but illegally excludes prescription contraceptives for its female employees,” said Marcia Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center. She pointed out that the college has claimed to be not pervasively sectarian so it cannot be exempted from the law that protects female employees.

Davison responded: “We treat all employees equally in our health plan, and we disagree with their interpretation of relevant laws.”

Davison said the faculty members who have filed complaints should know better.

“You don’t have to be a professor at a Catholic college to know this about the moral teachings of the Church,” he said. “It is absolutely astonishing that people who were hired by these monks, who work every day on a campus with monks walking around, would insult them by trying to get the government to force them to violate the morality that has always been the foundation of any Catholic institution.”

Joseph Esposito, editor of the Cardinal Newman Society’s The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College, said Belmont Abbey’s experience should be a lesson for all Catholic institutions of higher education.

“We commend Belmont Abbey for its leadership and strong witness on this issue,” said Esposito, whose guide includes Belmont Abbey among 21 recommended Catholic colleges. “The swift response from President Thierfelder and Abbot Placid Solari emphasizes the importance the college places on its Catholic fidelity and identity.”

Thierfelder affirmed such a statement when saying that the incident actually has been inspiring.

“It makes it clear to me why I’m here, why everyone else is here, what the purpose of the college is,” said Thierfelder, who on April 18 will join other college presidents in Washington, D.C., to visit with Pope Benedict XVI. “It crystallizes it and makes it clear to everyone that Jesus Christ is the center of Belmont Abbey College. It’s why we exist. I truly see this as a place that God is at the center of. It’s his college.”

Anthony Flott is based in

Papillion, Nebraska.