Blogs Jan 14, 2014 at 11:59 am

Ohio Catholic School Teacher Fired Because He Got Engaged to a Man

Paul Constant
Back to article

Comments

1
plus ça change, plus c'est la même
Hanoumatoi on January 14, 2014 at 12:06 PM Report this
2
It makes perfect sense, because the Catholic church thrives on the closet.

But here's an interesting question: how many facutly members in good standing are divorced and/or remarried.
Clayton on January 14, 2014 at 12:07 PM Report this
3
Oh, I say and I say it again, ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok! This is what He does.
Hanoumatoi on January 14, 2014 at 12:07 PM Report this
4
Are they anti-marriage? What is the church coming to?

Seriously, for all the people who say discrimination just because you're gay doesn't exist or isn't a real problem or should be allowed by religious organizations... argh! One's choice of wedding partner should not be the concern of anybody.
fletc3her on January 14, 2014 at 12:08 PM Report this
5
This recent Guardian editorial detailing many of the Catholic church's recent zigzags/inconsistencies/hypocrisies on gay employees, marriage, divorce, birth control, etc. deserves a look if anyone missed it the other day.
rob! on January 14, 2014 at 12:17 PM Report this
6
@2, how many straight faculty members/administrators in good standing use birth control?
rob! on January 14, 2014 at 12:19 PM Report this
7
Whoever could have expected this sort of reaction from a religious organization?!?
Urgutha Forka on January 14, 2014 at 12:26 PM Report this
8
I'm mystified. Marital status is a federally protected class in employment. It is illegal to discriminate on the basis of marital status, and it was passed long enough ago that there wasn't even an attempt to carve out a "religious" exemption to keep discriminating. One of these schools is going to get their head handed to them.
usagi on January 14, 2014 at 12:40 PM Report this
9
Sorry, I can't get that worked up about this. If the students and parents want to protest, fantastic! I hope they succeed in changing the administration's mind, but the fact of the matter is that religious institutions can be just about as discriminatory as they want to be. And it's worth noting that gay rights advocates haven't historically challenged that (in fact, they repeat over and over that churches won't be forced to acknowledge their marriages), so I only care so far as I hope that guy can get a good job with an institution that doesn't suck.
keshmeshi on January 14, 2014 at 12:41 PM Report this
10
@6--use of birth control is invisible to the societal eye. Therefore, it is possible to maintain a public state of denial. Like I said: the Catholic Church thrives on the closet.

I'm beginning to feel about the RCC the same way that I've felt about Westboro Baptist Church for some years: let them keep spouting their hypocritical, bigoted, nonsense. It makes them look bad and it wins allies for our side.
Clayton on January 14, 2014 at 12:42 PM Report this
11
@8 - Religious organizations have an exemption, even from federally protected classes. A private business cannot discriminate by race, for example, but churches can. It's why churches can decide not to marry two people of different races, if they choose, or of different religions (which is much more common). It's also why churches will never be forced to marry to partners of the same sex, even if gay marriage was legal nationwide.
TimesTwo on January 14, 2014 at 12:46 PM Report this
13
who are we kidding.

faggots already run the catholic church....
on January 14, 2014 at 12:48 PM Report this
14
Why is anybody surprised at this? Especially the teachers and students.

(Teachers and students who are happy to be part of a fucked up system until it affects somebody they know, then they're all "quelle surprise"! Hypocrites.)
unpaid reader on January 14, 2014 at 12:54 PM Report this
15
The inconsistency you point could likely cost the school a decent chunk of change should he pursue this in court. You can't know this or any other employee to be gay—or know straight employees are also violating the code of conduct and turn a blind eye, then punishing this man for getting engaged. I'm obviously not a lawyer, but I know that's how these cases have been won.

These schools are at the mercy of their endowments. If alumni won't stand up for what's right, then they want their contributions going to paying out fired gay teachers instead of benefiting the students.
Dougsf on January 14, 2014 at 1:09 PM Report this
16
What's really mystifying is why you folks would want to work for an organization you feel condemns you unfairly.

You only want to sue and force someone else to celebrate your lifestyle choice, really. Otherwise you'd seek employment someplace already steeped in moral equivalency, someplace far more interested in indoctrination of kids to a PC liberal worldview than educating them. You know- public schools.
Seattleblues on January 14, 2014 at 1:33 PM Report this
17
@16 - it may have been a great place to work outside of a few backwards and uncaring higher ups, which is a lot like EVERYWHERE ALMOST ANYONE HAS EVERY WORKED.
Dougsf on January 14, 2014 at 1:47 PM Report this
18
A part of the problem is that Catholic churches and schools have thousands of priests, nuns, organists, choir directors, and teachers who are gay, but who lie down and play dead when something like this happens. If all the LGBT people who work for the church and its many schools would come out of the closet, this kind of hypocrisy would not continue. Particularly if they were joined by straight allies who are divorced, use birth control, or otherwise engage in behaviors that run counter to official church teaching.
Clayton on January 14, 2014 at 1:52 PM Report this
19
Paul: The position of the Catholic Church is that they need to do a better job of reaching out to you, so that they can make you listen when they condemn you. The Pope is dead, long live the Pope.
Hanoumatoi on January 14, 2014 at 2:03 PM Report this
20
@16: Maybe there are people who are truly religious, you know? They care enough about keeping a communion with the Divine that they're willing to deal with an unfriendly environment to do so.
venomlash on January 14, 2014 at 2:16 PM Report this
21
Auntie Seattleblues it appears pretty much everything mystifies you.
Machiavelli was framed on January 14, 2014 at 2:19 PM Report this
22
One thing (among many) that freed me from Catholicism is the realization that it really isn't a cafeteria, there really is no picking and choosing. You swallow the dogma set before you, or you reject the whole thing.

The sooner that angry students in these high schools realize this, the sooner we'll all be free of Catholicism.
LMcGuff on January 14, 2014 at 2:25 PM Report this
23
I am sorry that this comes dangerously close to blaming the victim, but what prompted Panetta to inform schools officials he and his boyfriend recently became engaged?

I imagine he had an employment contract that said he would comply with church teaching, and I can see being troubled by the hypocritical application of standards, but Panetta had to know that there was some level of visibility after which the administration would "be forced" to invoke those provisions.

If he had waited to correctly apply for spousal benefits and been fired, that would be outrageous, but this seems just sad and inevitable.
on January 14, 2014 at 3:32 PM Report this
24
@21: And he's full of this.
venomlash on January 14, 2014 at 3:39 PM Report this
25
You all seem to be missing the point that the Catholic Church does not condemn homosexuals. They condemn homosexual acts. It is much the same as with priestly celibacy. It is OK for priests to be heterosexuals, they just can't engage in their desires. Of course this may not be a healthy paradigm, but Catholics have embraced it for 2,000 years. Its continued practice only pushes the church into even greater irrelevancy. As a former Catholic, I think that just might be a good thing.
collingswood on January 14, 2014 at 3:45 PM Report this
26
@22, 25: The thing is that the Catholic Church ALREADY HAS a mechanism to fall back on to justify not firing gay people. From a comment I made way back in 2010:
...I would respond that the primacy of conscience trumps the Pope. This is why the many gays who, despite all, still feel an affinity for the Catholic church, can enter into loving, sexual, same-sex relationships and take communion without theoretical consequence.
...This teaching that personal conscience is the ultimate guide in all our moral activity was clearly taught by St. Thomas Aquinas, probably the greatest Catholic theologian, in the 13th century. Aquinas held that an erroneous conscience was morally binding and that one is without moral fault in following it provided one has already made every reasonable effort to form a right moral judgment.
And John Paul II:
People are obliged to follow their conscience in all circumstances and cannot be forced to act against it.
And Papa Rat hisself (as a priest in 1968):
"Above the pope as an expression of the binding claim of church authority,” writes Ratzinger, “stands one’s own conscience, which has to be obeyed first of all, if need be against the demands of church authority."
rob! on January 14, 2014 at 4:16 PM Report this
27
In other words, anyone in a church-supported school, hospital, mission, etc. with hiring/firing authority COULD if they wanted, when a same-sex relationship comes to their attention, either look the other way or go to the extent of having said employees sign a form saying they claim primacy of conscience in regard to their personal lives.
rob! on January 14, 2014 at 4:21 PM Report this
28
In this sense they are better than all the protestant offshoots who give final authority/tyranny to their own hierarchies or even individual ministers.

(To be clear, I would like all organized religion to go away or be completely neutered in any legal sense. But until that day dawns, life must lived.)
rob! on January 14, 2014 at 4:24 PM Report this
29
@24, Juicy, juicy logic.
Sandiai on January 14, 2014 at 5:58 PM Report this
30
Catholic, you say?

Sandusky, is it?

Now, where have I heard those two before...hmmm...

Perhaps, someone should flip the welcome mat over so that great, gay teachers are welcome and pedophiles in the church are turned away.
on January 15, 2014 at 3:51 AM Report this
31
1) If this is anyone's biggest qualm with the catholic church they really really really need to read a book.

2) A gay person is should feel no more silly for being discriminated against at a catholic organization than they would at a Klan rally.

3) Fuck the catholic church and anyone who's profession it is to work with and legitimize catholicism (including vice principles and music teachers) Maybe don't work for the most long-standing bastion of pure evil on the planet???
NopeNope on January 15, 2014 at 7:48 AM Report this
32
Until all Catholic employees muster the bravery to "come out" for using contraceptives, having sex before marriage, having sex outside of marriage, getting divorced without the benefit of an annulment, masturbating, not to mention all the non-sexual sins human beings routinely commit, nothing will change. It's just too easy for the Catholic Church's hierarchy of repressed homosexuals to single out those gay people who, unlike the rest of these "sinners" cannot easily "pass" once they obtain a state-sanctioned marriage license. And remind me, how long has the Catholic Church been looking under rocks to monitor their employees' state-sanctioned marriage licenses? Just curious.
tniel on January 15, 2014 at 9:55 AM Report this

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview
Posted by (your name here)

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.

Editors' Picks

Seattle's All-Star Sweeps Remind Me of the Time the Pope Visited Harare
Karuna Long Is Serving Cambodian Deep Cuts at Oliver’s Twist—But He Needs Your Help
From Grief to Action
My Mom Came to Visit This Weekend
The Stranger’s Endorsements for the August 1, 2023, Primary Election
Seattle Reboots Its Drug War with No Plan and No Money to Scale Up Diversion
The Stranger
is a proud member of the media network
Masthead Ad Info & Rates Jobs at The Stranger Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Takedown Policy Find The Stranger Near You
Support The Stranger
All contents © Index Newspapers LLC
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134