Teacher sueing Archdiocese for Marrying w/o a bonafide Annulment

  • Thread starter Thread starter DanB
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

DanB

Guest
Here’s a hot topic in Iowa. Teacher at Catholic High School is fired because he remarried prior to getting an annulment and his subsequent annulment request was rejected by the Tribunal. Now he is sueing. Read the article for full disclosure.
desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007709030340

Although the Church is within it’s full rights to fire this teacher of 30 years, do you think it used juris prudence in such a firing, especially when the Archdiocese forced the school boards decision?
I think it was wrong for them to confiscate his retirement.
 
Here’s a hot topic in Iowa. Teacher at Catholic High School is fired because he remarried prior to getting an annulment and his subsequent annulment request was rejected by the Tribunal. Now he is sueing. Read the article for full disclosure.
desmoinesregister.com/app…=2007709030340

Although the Church is within it’s full rights to fire this teacher of 30 years, do you think it used juris prudence in such a firing, especially when the Archdiocese forced the school boards decision?
I think it was wrong for them to confiscate his retirement.
 
It doesn’t appear that a retirement or pension was part of his contract. It just says:
“Tom was the face of Columbus High School in this community, and after 32 years, they threw him away without a pension or retirement,”
Click to expand...
Not that they confiscated his retirement, or denied it to him. I haven’t heard of a Catholic school that has a pension plan for it’s teachers anyhow. And this guy isn’t suing for retirement, he is suing to get his job back. It doesn’t even talk about him having plans to retire soon, or gives any facts to indicate he had a retirement package at all.

I think the journalist could be quoting this person to imply something that isn’t true, in order to make it look like the Church fired him because it’s greedy and wanted to rob him of his retirement.

I think school administration should have made this clear before he got remarried or engaged. He seems pretty ignorant of the Church, for a Catholic school teacher. First he didn’t know he needed an annulment, then it doesn’t bother him that he didn’t get one, it just bothers him that he lost his job because of it.
 
I think it causes more scandal to fire an otherwise good teacher over something so trivial. If this keeps up there will be noone left.
 
I don’t know. While this is a regrettable situation, I am glad that the Church upheld orthodoxy. The Church didn’t “do” this to Mr. Girsch. He did it to himself. Divorce and “remarriage” without an annulment is not only invalid but immoral. In a society that is completely complacent with divorce (many Catholics included), I think the archbishop acted correctly by not sending any mixed messages. If you contract says you are to conduct yourself in a moral way, such flagrant immorality and disobedience to Church should be punished. It is not something that kids should be subject to (at least in a Catholic school!). In any event, Mr. Girsch, his family, and his diocese are in need of our prayers.
 
Believe me, it isn’t ‘trivial’. This is not an ‘oopsie’, nor a case so esoteric that the man would not have known or understood what was ‘wrong’.

It is just another sad example of a culture that glorifies ‘humanity’. Oh, Mr. X is such a GOOD person except for this one ‘petty’ thing. Oh, how awful for Mr. X to have to abide by rules when he is such a ‘great teacher’ that rather than judge him by his character and his responsibilities to abide by the rules others in his school abide by, we’ll instead ‘ditch’ the rules because, well, hey, he’s been here a long time, the kids like him, and isn’t it more important that we have a ‘good teacher’ rather than a ‘good person’ here?

Yes, the whole thing is about these two ‘sweet’ people who just wanted to be ‘happy’ together, and the mean old ogrish Catholic Church (which, in the article, gets lots of mentions for its’ secrecy’ and for its ‘views’ and for its implied double standards etc.) who are trying to pillory these poor people. Imagine.
 
They didn’t fire him, he gave his resignation under pressure. If he actually forced the school to fire him he might have more of an advantage in court.

The person that looks suspicious to me is the one who blind-sided the man with this problem right after his remarriage. Why didn’t he inform the teacher earlier?
 
OneAugustKnight said:
He seems pretty ignorant of the Church, for a Catholic school teacher. First he didn’t know he needed an annulment, then it doesn’t bother him that he didn’t get one, it just bothers him that he lost his job because of it.
Click to expand...
I always thought the teachers were the one’s who taught self-responsibility!:confused:
 
It sounds about the level of teaching in many Catholic Schools. I know an adult who went through eight years of Catholic School and never heard that one had to be married in the Church. Knowing the school, I believe it.}
 
What’s really sad is this guy is so busy being worried about losing his job that he forgot to be worried about losing his soul.

He needs lots of prayer. Not so that he gets his job back, but that he’ll repent and make things right with his Creator.
 
Hardly a good teacher. Let’s get real here, this is not some kid. If he has been teaching Social Studies at a Catholic High School for 30+ years and is that ignorant of Church teaching, he should have been sacked years ago.

The fact that the couple had a “civil marriage” surely indicates that they knew they were going against Church law.

I have lost friends over this issue after pointing out to them that they would be unable to receive Communion if they proceeded. They considered themselves staunch Catholics until the Church objected to something they wanted to do. Then, suddenly, the Church is the bad guy.
 
goofyjim said:
Like I said there will be noone left.🤷
Click to expand...
Sure there will. There will be teachers who understand that teaching in a Catholic school means that they will be held to a higher standard of personal conduct and who understand the definition of the term covenant in the matrimonial and theological sense. In return, there will be students who see teachers as role models and not as hypocrites.

If teachers such as this man don’t want to be held to that standard or if they prefer the temporary illusion of a contract that passes for commitment on the part of so many today, then let them teach elsewhere, just keep them away from my children.
 
I’m guessing he is considered a bigamist, since his first marriage wasn’t annuled and he remarried civilly?
 
goofyjim said:
Like I said there will be noone left.🤷
Click to expand...
Numbers are not the Church’s concern, but faithfulness to the Truth. The Church follows the example of Jesus when he was teaching about the Eucharist in John 6, and didn’t try to mitigate His teaching when people began leaving over the difficulty in believing this doctrine. He merely asked the apostles if they, too, were going to leave. So the Church holds to the Truth in spite of persecution.

Ironically, though, studies have found that people are more attracted to parishes that hold strictly to the teaching of the magisterium. The places with shortages of priests are those that are in dissent. People are hungry for the Truth about God, as St. Augustine said so long ago.
 
Ruthmary said:
. . .Ironically, though, studies have found that people are more attracted to parishes that hold strictly to the teaching of the magisterium. The places with shortages of priests are those that are in dissent. People are hungry for the Truth about God, as St. Augustine said so long ago.
Click to expand...
Several years ago the Educational establishment was busy making Religious Education simpler and easier in a losing fight to attract teenagers. I noted the dedication of the Moonies and the Mormon missionaries and realized that people are attracted by a cause that makes demands on them. If it is too undemanding, it is probably not worth even that minimal effort.
 
Not saying that he is, but what if he was honestly living with his new “wife” as brother and sister, seperate bedrooms, not sexual intimacy, etc. and they married each other for companionship? Would that be different since they weren’t living in sin?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top