

As a Catholic school fires a gay teacher, the Catholic religion needs reform. A preparatory high school in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, with the name “Holy Ghost” recently fired a former student turned veteran teacher after the teacher had applied for a marriage license to wed his same-sex partner.

Griffin, the teacher, had worked at the Catholic high school for over a decade and taught French and Spanish at the school. Griffin, school administration knew, happened to be an alumnus of the all-boys liberal arts private high school. Further, as usually does develop with long-term employment, a close-knit camaraderie between all sides had come to pass, and Griffin and his partner, along with faculty and school headmaster, often attended social functions together and made visits to the home of the headmaster.

In other words, it might be highly unusual that anyone employed at the Catholic high school did not know or possibly even suspect that Griffin is gay. The better part of 12 years; and the length of employment and personal relationship with this companion rendered Griffin’s partner invited to join Griffin on many of the school’s outings. And quite likely, neither of the men stated to the others in that circle that they were siblings or any other familiarity such as that, in an effort to hide their same-sex relationship from Griffin’s co-workers.

The headmaster, Father James McCloskey knew that a gay man had been hired to work at the school. This seemed to be acceptable because Griffin lasted for more than a decade at the same Catholic high school. Griffin loved his job and everyone around him. He went on all sorts of outings with his superiors and coworkers; and received a paycheck, consistently, from the school for many years.

What occurred to suddenly cause the Catholic school to fire the dedicated, exceptionally bright and well-educated teacher wasn’t so much the same-sex matrimonial certificate that Griffin went for, and, says McCloskey, the fact that Griffin thereby violated the terms of his teaching contract. What occurred is the Catholic religion, with this type of double standard and others, needs reform in a world crying out for, and in much need of, far more compassion toward and respect for all of humanity than they are showing in this case.

It is a downright hypocrisy of the Catholic realm, and any of its high schools or colleges, or churches or other institutions to be “OK” with employing a gay person for 12 years, but then canning that individual’s well-earned “livelihood” because he or she has decided to take his own private, personal relationship to the next level of marriage.

First, at no time is the Catholic Church under any obligation to perform the ceremony for the “same-sex” couple looking to marry. Other Christian denominations are supportive of individuals who are homosexual. These include the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Canada, the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. In addition, the Alliance of Baptists and the United Church of Christ condone gay marriage, and some of the Lutheran and Anglican churches allow for the blessing of gay unions because their focus is the human beings involved, and nothing more.

So far, these days in the US, more states are recognizing same-sex marriage. New Jersey is now the 14th state that recognizes same-sex marriage, as of October 2013; and there exists the separation of church and state, with its own guidelines, and the standard of traditional marriage between a man and a woman, and its right to continue, and a slew of every kind of opinion on same-sex coupling the earth carries.

The main point remains, for the Catholic or other opposing religion: apart from what really is no one’s business what lifestyles people choose to live; humans are human beings and God (for those who believe) loves the gays as much as the strays. He loves the wealthy as much as the lowly; as much as any skin color, size or form, and as much as the pompous pious with their cavemen teachings and bejeweled gowns of high holy rollers. God loves all people equally.

The Catholic Church is the world’s largest Christian Church, with an appropriated 1.2 billion current members. It has a special hierarchy that include cardinals and bishops and top-ranking Pope/s leading the way; and prides itself that the Church teaches that the “one true church” was divinely established by the Lord Jesus Christ. With regard to sexuality and gender issues, the Catholic Church states:

The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.

Those headmasters, firing gay school personnel, whom they embraced prior for some 12 years, surely know how to provide a bold contradiction and misrepresentation of its other order: the love factor. The bottom-line, no holds barred love factor is what this Catholic High School headmaster overlooked. What we have here, in the underlying case of “a Catholic school fires a gay teacher,” is the deep insensitivity toward the gay person’s “vocation” as a teacher, and the profound need for reform of the Catholic religion.

Why was it OK, twelve years ago, to hire the [gay] teacher, if the Church already first understood that person’s sexual preference and where it might lead in the teacher’s private life? Why was he hired in the first place in light of the teachings of the church that homosexuality and same-sex marriage is considered wrong or immoral?

If the Catholic high school hired the “teacher” because Griffin brought much good to the table in terms of qualifications, strong educational background and other pluses on the résumé, and the termination was not due to violation of work ethics or sexual misconduct with any of the all-boy school students, then what this high school has done is call the kettle black.

The Church (in any religion) is to bring back the “love” factor to the earth, not the “judgmental” and destructive “Do as I say, not as I do” browbeating that we often see lots of today throughout many religions. But speaking especially to any Catholic school that would fire a gay teacher because the Catholic religion needs reform: let us not forget the previous scandals of the wolves dressed in your sheep clothes; the pedophile priests; whose perversions date back as far as the 1960’s, when on record now, their grown victim men came forward to tell of the sexual abuse they suffered as children, at the hands of those disordered ones. The Church did what it could to conceal them and protect them, and moved them around to different locations, rather than “terminate” their employment and their alleged “code of honor.” The Church paid millions of dollars everywhere to quiet down the ruckus, and some of those churches even filed bankruptcy because this appalling scandal ended up being that costly.

And now the Catholic “Holy Ghost Preparatory High School” turns and fires a gay teacher for seeking nothing more than the right to live his personal life the way that ultimately is between God and him and his partner? Forget that the teacher is gay, and look at his vocational qualifications and at the individual as ultimately the human being that he is. After all, the Church disregarded the filthy pedophilia of its countless priests and treated them as loved enough to cover the multitude of terrible sin!

The Catholic religion needs reform. Bearing all of this in mind, the Catholic high school that fired gay teacher Griffin forgot to execute two of Jesus’ greatest teachings: “Judge not, lest ye be, judged,” and “love one another the way that God has loved you.”

An Editorial By Christina Ibbotson

Sources:

GuardianLV

Slate

Opposing Views

USA Today

US NBC News

The Daily Telegraph

Daily Mail

The Guardian

Huffington Post

ABC News

ArchMil.org

Church and State

Raw Story

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