Headmaster
Posted on 08/14/2007 3:56:31 AM PDT by monomaniac
By Peter J. Smith
LIVERPOOL, United Kingdom, August 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool is telling parents and faithful Catholics that it has no power to sack a Catholic headmaster who has entered into a civil partnership with a male teacher.
The Daily Telegraph first reported that the Catholic Church will take no action against Charles Coyne, the head of St. Cecilia's primary school, who has a registered homosexual partnership with Richard Jones, another schoolteacher.
"Legal advice was sought," said an archdiocesan spokesman. "The Church was advised that in this case nothing could be done, despite the fact that the head was acting contrary to Church teaching."
The spokesman said that senior church leaders - such as Archbishop Patrick Kelly, the second leading prelate in England and Wales and Fr. Michael O'Dowd, the Episcopal vicar for schools and colleges - were informed of the case and the complications of employment law, which forbids discrimination against "sexual orientation."
The Telegraph continued to report that the archdiocese's paralysis and inaction has fomented a scandal among British Catholics. One Catholic was quoted as saying: "Senior officials are aware of this yet they have done nothing. It's unacceptable."
Adding to the scandal, however, was the discovery that Coyne and Jones had a "reception" in a Catholic parish centre.
LifeSiteNews.com contacted Norman Wells, director of the UK's Family Education Trust, who stated: "It is not unreasonable for parents sending their children to a faith school to expect the head teacher to be living according to that faith."
"We shouldn't write off such parents as irrational homophobes," Wells continued. "Like many others, they have genuine concerns about the health and social consequences of homosexual lifestyles and want influential figures in their children's lives to be people who share their values."
However the Telegraph reports that British bishops have offered thus far confused and half-measured responses to the situation. The Liverpool archdiocese said in a statement that Charles Coyne had run St. Cecilia's primary school for many years and "matters relating to his personal life have in no way interfered with his management of the school."
"I would ask heads to think about the example they are setting to their pupils and the local community," Bishop John Jukes of Southwark told the Telegraph, adding that school governors should ask a headmaster to step down if he openly flouted the Church's moral teaching. However Bishop Jukes then went on to state that male friends may share a house together without violating Catholic moral teaching: a self-evident truth that faithful Catholics say obviously does not apply in the case of Headmaster Coyne and his homosexual liaison.
To contact the Archdiocese of Liverpool:
Liverpool Archdiocesan Centre for Evangelisation
Croxteth Drive
Liverpool
L17 1AA
Tel: 0151 522 1000
List of Departments: http://www.archdiocese-of-liverpool.co.uk/lace.htm
Christian Education Department
LACE, Croxteth Drive, Liverpool, L17 1AA.
Tel: 0151 522 1050
Fax:0151 522 1060
Director Desmond Seddon
e-mail: d.seddon@rcaol.co.uk
To contact Archdiocese Of Liverpool Schools Department
Schools Department
LACE, Croxteth Drive, Liverpool, L17 1AA.
Tel: +44 (0)151 522 1071
Fax: +44 (0)151 522 1082
E-mail: aes@rcaol.co.uk
Episcopal Vicar for Schools And Colleges: Very Reverend M O'Dowd
Director: Frank Cogley
If they did fire this pervert, the UK govt. would probably come down on them with all four cloven hooved feet!
Transfer him to the sanitation department (aka “sawdust on vomit”)
B.S. Close the school immediately. Reopen it later, when the scum has moved on.
The fact that these people let it get this
far in the first place is a travesty!
Headmaster? I wonder how he earned that title.
“Legal advice was sought,” said an archdiocesan spokesman. “The Church was advised that in this case nothing could be done, despite the fact that the head was acting contrary to Church teaching.”
Zzzzz.....zzzz....zzzz..wha..whassa...whatsmarrer? Huh? What? They can do THAT? HERE? And we can do...Nothing? What? How did that happen? That’s against everything we stand for! Its disgusting..its unnatural..its..PERVERSE... i mean..wha? What’s that officer? I’m what? Under arr.. For what? Hate crime? Since when..oh since the landmark law...but but...how long in prison?????
All that is neccesary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.
Sure there is.
Enjoy your empty churches.
The spokesman said that senior church leaders - such as Archbishop Patrick Kelly, the second leading prelate in England and Wales and Fr. Michael O’Dowd, the Episcopal vicar for schools and colleges - were informed of the case and the complications of employment law, which forbids discrimination against “sexual orientation.”
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A Church founded on the blood of martyrs and they can’t work up the courage to stand against the government to practice their religion. Money, money, money . . . they’ll sue us . . . that’s what they care about.
Time for some Puritans to go back to England and re-evangelize the pagans.
Then they should reopen it as a new school the next week, and hold open interviews for teaching staff and administrative staff.
Headmaster
‘B.S. Close the school immediately. Reopen it later, when the scum has moved on.’
There is a deep lack of understanding on this forum of what a faith school is in Britain. A group, in this case the Catholic Church apply to the government for the money to set up and run a faith school based on their faith. The government gives them the money and they get on with runnung their faith school how they like providing they adhere to the national curriculum and do not violate the law. The catholic church are welcome to close the dchool and/or fire the headmaster, but they will no longer be funded by the state. The catholic church would rather put it’s funding ahead of it’s beliefs in this case.
Does US employment law allow employees to be fired because of their sexual orientation?
A third of British schools are state funded christian faith schools, something which I understand is an anathema in the secular US.
Gay Headmaster. Heh-heh-heh.
My Mother was raised in the Catholic Church,yet she sent all six of her children to a Methodist Church.She must have known something but she never said what.I am glad I was never an alter boy.It is creepy.
Only in some “liberal” states is it illegal to fire someone for homosexuality. Mostly in the Northeast and on the West coast.
The Democrats want to make it a federal crime, which would apply to all states, but they so far have been unable to do it. If they do, we have a First Amendment protection of religious liberty which MAY prevent the law from applying to church employment. I say “may” because there’s a growing effort in America to raise fabricated rights (abortion, sodomy, etc.) above established rights (free speech, religious liberty, freedom of association) and the courts are split between constitutionalist judges and those judges who are on the “progressive” political bandwagon.
The last time a similar case went to the Supreme Court was the Boy Scouts case a few years ago. The homosexual lobby tried to have the scouts expelled from the public schools, public parks, and other areas unless they agreed to have homosexual scoutmasters. The scouts won in a close 5-4 ruling. The court narrowly ruled that the scouts’ right to religious liberty and freedom of association overrode any alleged right of homosexuals not to be “discriminated” against.
Thank you for your explanation. In the U.S., we’ve got our seperation of church and state. This can be used to get rid of, say, nativity scenes on public property or a posting of the Ten Commandments outside of a court. On the other hand, Catholic schools are not under the jurisdiction of the government the way your schools are because they are private schools, or what you would call public schools. Would staff in your public schools be allowed to fire the headmaster mentioned in this article?
“A third of British schools are state funded christian faith schools, something which I understand is an anathema in the secular US.”
Thats because traditionally it was the Church that decided it would be a good idea to provide the masses with an education and set up all the schools in the first place. The government copied the idea...they didnt originate it. Now they spend all their time attacking the institution that set them going in the first place. Hypocrites.
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