Gay California Catholic teacher's firing sparks online petition

Reuters ^ | 8/2/2013 | Alex Dobuzinskis

[markomalley]

A Catholic high school teacher said he was fired for marrying his gay partner soon after same-sex matrimony was made legal in California, prompting a Web-based push to see him reinstated.

The petition drive in support of English instructor Ken Bencomo on the online petition platform Change.org has gathered over 9,000 signatures from his former students and people as far away as Spain since it was launched earlier this week.

The teacher and his partner were among a wave of same-sex couples who married after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June cleared the way for gay weddings to resume in California for the first time since 2008.

If Bencomo sues, his attorney, Patrick McGarrigle, sees it as a potential test case of legal protections some religious institutions assert they have in hiring and firing based on principles of faith.

Bencomo taught at the all-girls St. Lucy's Priory High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendora for over 16 years, but was terminated in July, a little more than a week after marrying his longtime partner, McGarrigle said on Thursday.

Brittany Littleton, 23, a former student at St. Lucy's, is leading the online petition, which asks administrators to "reverse this act of prejudice" against her former teacher and "give him his job back."

A Beverly Hills resident and yoga instructor, Littleton said her drive was not meant to tear down St. Lucy's, which she described as pushing students to be "forward thinking."

[Mrs. Don-o]

The problem is in the public nature of the teacher's offense, since marriage is by its nature a public declaration.

If he were just sharing a house with a man --- for example --- there wouldn't be any public proof of a homosexual relationship. Many guys share apartments or houses with other guys, not only as students but in many other circumstances, best friends, business associates, especially in places where housing is expensive and salaries are low.

Marriage, however, proclaims their cohabitation as an unmistakably sexualized arrangement. That's where an institution which opposes sodomy is forced to draw a line.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I am aware of the rule being reiterated in 1962 (Pope John XXIII) and 2005 (Pope John Paul II).

The word "homosexuality" didn't even enter into Church parlance until fairly recently. Previously, the concept of a persistent sensual weakness would have been covered by the more general word "concupiscence." A man strongly under the influence of any of the passions (this would mean any form of sexual covetousness, as well as covetousness for money, luxury, personal prominence, power) would be considered unsuitable for seminary or for ordination.

This, in turn, would go back to the Council of Trent document Cum adolescentium aetas which called for the foundation of the first modern diocesan seminaries (as distinct from monastic novitiates), which were to train candidates for the priesthood in intellectual and spiritual discipline, "to extirpate heresy and reform morals", as it decreed in its Fifth Session (June, 1546)

[Iscool]

Thanks for the info...

[SpirituTuo]

Thank you for the details.