Boston College is fighting back against a worker who’s suing it for disregarding what he claims is his religious right to not get a Covid-19 shot in a way that other organizations facing similar suits cannot: It argues it has its own religious rights under the First Amendment to require workers to get vaccinated.
In April, Avenir Agaj, who worked as a landscaper, sued BC in US District Court in Boston, arguing his 2021 firing violated his rights as a follower of Bogomil, a 10th-century gnostic Bulgarian breakaway from mainstream Christianity whose sacred texts were destroyed as heresies by both Catholic and Orthodox leaders but which he says bar him from ingesting “filth,” such as vaccines.
In a response filed yesterday to his suit, Boston College argues that, as a Catholic institution, its demand that workers get vaccinated against Covid-19 or lose their jobs, was an exercise of its own religious rights under the First Amendment, in this case, because of a mandate by Pope Francis for Catholics to be vaccinated:
Boston College is a Jesuit, Catholic institution. On December 17, 2020, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, ordered publication of a Note regarding vaccination in response to COVID-19. Ultimately issued by the Vatican on December 21, 2020, the Note referred to vaccination for COVID-19 and the “duty to protect one’s own health but also… the duty to preserve the common good” against the “grave danger” of the “otherwise uncontainable spread of a serious pathological agent…” Boston College’s vaccination policy adhered to and was informed by Church teaching on this subject. In issuing and acting on its vaccination policy, Boston College was engaged in the free exercise of its religious beliefs.
BC also argues that his initial application for a religious exemption did not even specify which religion he was an adherent of, let alone which of its specific tenets prohibited him from getting vaccinated, but that, in any case, it had more secular reasons for firing him – similar to those argued by government agencies and hospitals that have faced similar suits: BC says it had no way to provide a “reasonable accommodation” that would let Agaj stay employed, that in fact, granting his request would create “undue hardship.” The filing does not detail just what sort of hardship the school would have faced.
The answer also implies BC has somehow obtained a detailed understanding of Bogomil beliefs:
If Plaintiff had a sincerely held religious belief, or routinely followed a sincerely-held religious practice, which Boston College denies, Boston College’s vaccination requirement was not in conflict with plaintiff’s religious belief or religious practice.
Earlier this month, a federal judge concluded that Agaj’s follow-up to BC’s denial of his exemption request did have just enough details of his beliefs to warrant letting him continue his case, if not enough to grant him victory and damages before trial:
Agaj has made a prima facie showing that his bona fide religious beliefs and practice were the reason for the adverse employment action against him. Boston College’s motion to dismiss will, accordingly, be denied as to Agaj’s religious discrimination claims.
