So it's official: Father Jim was fired for being gay
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
So it's official: Father Jim was fired for being gay
Ronnie Polaneczky, Daily News Columnist
When Chestnut Hill College fired Father Jim St. George from a teaching gig, no one at the school would tell him why his services were no longer needed. You can read my column about it here.
Late last night, college President Carol Jean Vale, SSJ, finally offered an explanation. Father Jim was fired for being gay. Here's the statement she released to the public:
"As president of Chestnut Hill College, a private Catholic institution, it is imperative that I clarify the conditions of our College's decision not to issue a new part-time teaching contract to Jim St. George.
"St. George served as adjunct instructor in our School of Continuing and Professional Studies from January 2010 to February of this year teaching a variety of courses in religion and scripture.
"At the time St. George joined our faculty, he presented himself as Father St. George and openly wore a traditional Catholic priest's collar. While St. George appears to be an ordained pastor-he leads St. Miriam, an independent and self-described reformed Antioch-rite Catholic house of worship located in Blue Bell, Pa.--his church allows priests the option to engage in same-sex partnerships.
"This is contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. It was with great disappointment when we learned through St. George's public statements of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man for the past 15 years.It is important to note that this information came to our attention only after St. George chose to make his private life public information on his blog.
"While we welcome diversity, it is expected that all members of our College community, regardless of their personal beliefs, respect and uphold our Roman Catholic mission, character and values both in the classroom and in public statements that identify them with our school. For this reason, we chose not to offer an additional teaching contract to St. George."
So here's a question: Will Vale fire all staff members whose lives, in any way, reflect aspects that are "contrary to the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church"?
Are other gay staffers going to get canned? What about staffers who use birth control? Who have had or support abortion? Who are divorced? Who, ahem, masturbate (an act of which the Vatican said Pope said is "a grave moral disorder" and "intrinsically and seriously disordered act")?
Meantime, below is a news piece about the controversy, which aired last night on Fox-TV.
brppkshire, the Church is not loaded with gay priests, nor gay pedophiles. First off, pedohiles are just that, not gay or otherwise. Plenty of "heterosexual" pedophiles out there. Just as many gay priests as there are gay men throughout the world. You know as much about this as you so about sports.— mike l- 'The Church' wonders why it's losing parishioners.
i'm an atheist, proud to be one for this reason and others, but i agree that "this is what the church teaches" and they should be free to make these decisions. The Catholic doctrine is that being who are born as is wrong...lets put it all out there. The church is anti-biology and anti-fact. Wow...there's a revelation.— jakeAZ - I love how it OK to call all catholic priest pedophile because of a certain few but if I were to say all Muslims are terrorists I would be vilified by all. All you people who follow the masses would be the same ones that would fall under Hitler's grand scheme. I am not a practicing Catholic but they are good ofr society. Everyone on here is so ignorant. I hope when your grand hildren live in a world so dehumanized and all Muslim worshipping you are able to think back to how you played a part in it all. Keep believing everything you read and don't bother to think with any reason at all just make sure you don't seperate yourself from the pack— BentLogic
- The title is wrong: Father Jim was not fired for "being" gay. Whether the reason he was fired was because he broke his VOW OF CHASTITY or because he participated in homosexual acts is unclear to me, but he was NOT fired for being gay. Change the title, biased columnist.— MikeBrooks806
- no one lies better than a nun— regisisking
- As a Chestnut Hill alumna I am deeply saddened by the college's actions. The college has fired a teacher who was clearly not only competent but well-respected by his students. I am grateful that they weren't firing gay teachers when I attended Chestnut Hill years ago because I would have missed out on some truly inspired teaching. It's an embarassment that this man was terminated in so callous a manner and particularly that his firing was in response to a complaint from a bigot. I am ashamed of Chestnut Hill College and will never support it financially again.— ChescoMom
- ChescoMom, your are clearly suffering from an advanced case of leftism. The issues here are that the "reverend" in question is NOT a Catholic priest and apparently misrepresented himself when first hired. Moreover, the purpose of a Catholic college is to teach, in its theology courses, Catholicism, and that includes (whether it offends your leftist ears or not) the church's teachings on sexuality and family life. Get used to it. I can only shake my head at the extremely biased approach you leftists take here: your position is as absurd as arguing the Communist Party should be run by capitalists. They would never allow that (logically preferring Marxists as members) and so the Catholic Church should be allowed to remove those who will not teach Catholicism from its schools. The shoddy intellectual efforts put forth by your side of the political spectrum is the major reason your side is sololy losing the Culture War. — George Tomezsko
- This official public statement is very clear and to the point. It establishes with no room for debate that homophobic bigotry is the official policy of the RC Church. We all knew this before, but here is a full confession. Kudos to church officials for finally coming clean. This kind of candor and honesty is unprecedented.— prenestino
- There are some key facts that many of you have missed: He is NOT a Roman Catholic. He did not take vows of celibacy. In his church priests may marry. When he was hired he emphasized he was NOT an RC priest and was told this would not be a problem, that they hired people from all religions— prenestino
- Father Jim is a victim of homophobia and represents one of the last vestiges of social and human rights prejudices. I received two masters degrees from CHC and was taught to engage in a complex process of moral reasoning. The stuff that's coming from CHC is based in fear, personal protection, and deference to power and money. I stand with Father Jim and Christ, who engaged in community with those who are outcasts.— demeter47
When my phone rings here at the Daily News, nine times out of ten the caller begins the conversation with, “Yeah, so what happened was…”.
Because this is Philly, the caller doesn’t say, “My name is Bob” – or Mary – “and I wonder if I could have a moment of your time?” Philadelphians are too direct for that. They just say, “Yeah, so what happened was…”, and then tumble into a tale they think oughta be shared with a wider audience. I love getting these calls (even the ones where it becomes clear, after 30 seconds, where the caller sowed the seeds of his own misery), because they give me chance to connect with fellow citizens in a way that no other job allows. Well, okay, no other job for which I’m remotely qualified.
That’s why my blog is titled “So What Happened Was…”. To me, it’s the quintessentially Philly way of saying, “Once upon a time.” When I hear it, I know a good story is coming. And I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Ronnie Polaneczky has been an award-winning columnist for The Philadelphia Daily News since 1999, offering a front-steps perspective on every aspect of city life, from the sublime to the stupid. In her past life, she was the editor-in-chief of Atlantic City Magazine, associate editor at Philadelphia Magazine and a fulltime freelancer published in Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Reader's Digest, Men's Health, MarieClaire and others. She lives with her husband, daughter and various pets in the city's Fairmount section, where she dreams of one day singing The National Anthem at an Eagles game. In addition to her column and blog, you can enjoy Ronnie's musings in podcast form here.
Read more from Ronnie Polaneczky at Earth to Philly, the Daily News blog on anything and everything "Green
Reach Ronnie at polaner@phillynews.com.
