A School Fires Two Teachers for Being Gay, and It's As Pathetic As You Imagine

By Joe Anthony
Huffington Post
September 4, 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-anthony/a-school-fires-two-teache_b_5760708.html

It was publicized today that Cor Jesu Academy of St. Louis, Missouri, has fired two staff members, Olivia Reichert and Christina Gambaro, after they were discovered to be in a lesbian relationship.

They weren't fired for lewd sex acts, for using their position as a pulpit to advocate, or for pursuing their students with nefarious purpose; rather, their relationship reportedly came to light after the school received a copy of a mortgage application signed by the couple.

So let's get this straight: A Catholic school in the Archdiocese of St. Louis fires two teachers on the sole basis of their being in a homosexual relationship, saying that they're not upholding their commitment to serve as Christian role models -- the implication being, of course, that their community has higher standards for role models than two women in a loving marriage and teaching at a Catholic school... oh, and who happen to be lesbians.

And yet this takes place within a Catholic archdiocese where 115 (one hundred and fifteen!) Catholic priests have been accused of sexual abuse since 1983 -- the vast majority against children. And this number doesn't even include more recent accusations (here, here, and here).

And yet this takes place within a Catholic archdiocese where their "most holy" man, Archbishop Robert J. Carlson, can't seem to remember if raping children is even a crime.

And yet this takes place within a Catholic archdiocese where their leadership seemed to make every effort to find "a quiet way out" of sex-abuse scandals, reportedly going as far as obscuring data and bribing accusers to protect their own.

And yet this takes place within a Catholic archdiocese that, last year, encouraged their community members to attend a prayer event for the defense and exoneration of a priest on trial for abusing his position to molest a teenage girl. Well, at least he isn't gay, I guess?

Tell me, please, what is so holy about this community's Catholic archdiocese and associated schools that makes two married women in a consensual relationship, committing their time to teaching young people in the classroom, so morally out-of-bounds?

Pope Francis, the archdiocese's ultimate boss, the church authority to whom Cor Jesu's staff commitment ultimately adheres, and the Catholic Church's most holy man on the planet, to whom God is believed to speak directly, has made it clear that the Catholic Church is to include gays in all elements of society, and that neither he nor anyone really has the authority to judge someone solely on the basis of their sexuality.

I suppose the only real answers to what is right lie in the age-old question: Is the pope really Catholic?

Maybe instead we should ask a more pertinent question: Have Cor Jesu's administration lived up to their own call for staff and administration to be role models to the girls in their school? Are they living up to the call of the leader of their own Catholic Church? Allow me to be the first to call for the resignation of the women who run Cor Jesu and oversaw this decision, this bastardization of the Catholic faith.

And shame on you, Archbishop Carlson, for actively promoting anti-gay sentiment in your community, and for turning a blind eye to these fundamental abuses of power.

It is my hope and my prayer that one day St. Louis' Catholics will be free from this unholy church leadership so that their city can be free from hateful social bounds based on ignorance and intolerance, and join us here in the modern era.