Catholic school teacher fired for gay wedding

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Per the National Catholic Reporter’s account they did:
Griffin protested. It was already well known in the school that he is gay; he and his partner, Vincent Giannetto, both wear rings; a school administrator came to the reception for their civil union in 2008; and the pair frequently attended school parties as a couple, including a big fundraiser in April.
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“To me, that was much more public than me e-mailing the principal, so I don’t understand, if (they) were going to fire me, why not in April, why not for the civil union, why not at the first time I brought my partner to the school? That’s why it’s sort of a shock to me,” he told The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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ncronline.org/news/politics/catholic-high-school-fires-teacher-who-applied-gay-marriage-license

I can see this being a real problem if they’ve known for 5 years or more and did nothing.
 
NCR is a heterodox paper that has been requested by their Bishop to stop using the word Catholic in their name. As such they are not a reliable source of information.
 
I would avoid using the National Catholic Reporter as a source because it is heterodox, and and often presents a flawed understanding of Church teaching. This doesn’t necessarily mean that their articles are factually incorrect, but to avoid supporting the NCR I would choose another source if at all possible.

In this particular case, the NCR quote was based on a news article which appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Here is a link to that article:
philly.com/philly/news/local/20131209_Gay_teacher_surprised_Catholic_school_fired_him.html

The allegation that the school knew of Michael Griffin’s domestic partner is based entirely on statements from Griffin.

The school principal released a statement which said:
“Unfortunately, [Griffin’s] decision contradicts the terms of his teaching contract at our school, which requires all faculty and staff to follow the teachings of the church as a condition of their employment. In discussion with Mr. Griffin, he acknowledged that he was aware of this provision in his contract, yet he said that he intended to go ahead with the ceremony. Regretfully, we informed Mr. Griffin that we have no choice but to terminate his contract effective immediately.”

Griffin was warned not to get married or he would lose his job. He decided to get married. It was the choice he made. Wouldn’t it have been better if he had made that choice before the school year started?
 
Lochias said:
Good for this school. The fella knew exactly what would happen.

Really, I’m getting tired of the media spinning “news stories” that aren’t news-worthy; water’s wet, the sky’s blue, and someone got fired for violating their work contract.

Big whoop-de-whoop.
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I think it’s just an attempt to get people mad at the Church and to promote the Progressive Agenda.
 
Truth_Faith13 said:
Even I understand why…on any catholic school website it will say something along the lines of “we are a catholic school and you have to respect our ethos”

So many people these days automatically shout human rights and churches should embrace the change in times…but you are not supposed to change God? 🤷 He doesn’t move with the times!
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This is what I don’t understand: If you are a practicing homosexual and you want to get married, then WHY in the world would you WANT to work at a Catholic school where you know that it is against what the Church teaches…unless you want to teach your own agenda?? As a parent with a child in Catholic School, it un-nerves me to no end that there are/could be poorly catechized, non-practicing Catholics in a Catholic school.
 
Abundant said:
This is what I don’t understand: If you are a practicing homosexual and you want to get married, then WHY in the world would you WANT to work at a Catholic school where you know that it is against what the Church teaches…
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According to the Philadelphia Inquirer article, he was a graduate of the school and has taught there for the past 12 years. Since he was hired when he was 23 years old, he has spent pretty much his entire teaching career at the school.

He is planning to get married in New Jersey, the state in which he lives. NJ did have same-sex marriage available until late October. And even that was a result of NJ Supreme Court ruling which occurred one month earlier. So perhaps he never considered marriage to be a realistic possibility, and never considered the conflict with Church teaching. 🤷

However, I would be surprised if he were truly unaware of Church teachings with regard to homosexuality, or its very public opposition to same-sex marriage laws, or the recent spate of teacher firings due to violations of the morality clause in teacher contracts.

I don’t think the teacher had any kind of agenda. But he may have thought that his long-time and close relationship with the school may have protected him from repercussions.
 
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