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I support Patricia Jannuzzi's right to express her Catholic mind without fear of retribution
Vivificat - From Contemplation to Action ^ | 25 Mar 2015 | Teófilo de Jesús (@vivificat)

Posted on 03/25/2015 8:35:47 AM PDT by Teófilo

Teacher Patricia Jannuzi

Brethren, Peace be with you.

As you may know from numerous media reports, Patricia Jannuzzi is a (suspended) teacher at a Catholic high school in New Jersey. According to Aleteia.org,
Jannuzzi, a teacher at Immaculata High School in Somerville, was suspended with pay and benefits two weeks ago. Her bishop, Paul Bootkoski of the diocese of Metuchen, wrote that Jannuzzi’s now-deleted Facebook post was “disturbing and do not reflect the church’s teachings of acceptance.”

Placing private-school teachers on administrative leave is a common form of punishment that school district officials use to fire the employees, according to an official.  Has Bishop Paul Bootkoski made up his mind already? Has he terminated Jannuzzi?

According to mycentraljersey.com, Jannuzzi’s lawyer said the bishop did just that. Attorney David Oakley told the publication that lawyers for the diocese of Metuchen said Jannuzzi would be fired in effect by the summer.
Her offending post, as captured by a gay activist,  was as follows:


Those were the expressions Bishop Bootkoski called “disturbing and do not reflect the church’s teachings of acceptance" and what triggered her current suspension without pay and her impending dismissal from her job, according to her lawyers.

For what is worth, I want to say I support Patria Jannuzzi. What she said about the gay lobby is true. Barring any other personnel issue that we are not aware of, that Bishop Bootkoski is making her an example for failing to adhere to his interpretation of a public comment by the Pope - in which I detect no will to prescribe policy changes to any local diocese's personnel practices - is sad and disturbing. More so if Bishop Bootkoski had not expressed himself specifically on issue before, and detailed these conditions in Mrs. Jannuzi's contract before employing her.

What happened here is that Mrs. Jannuzi told the truth, and the Thought Police went after her, and that her Bishop for reasons unknown, bent to the artificial pressure generated by gay rights activists and made an example out of her instead of protecting her right to speak her mind on a matter of concern to all Catholics, which now will cost Mrs. Jannuzi her livelihood.

Pelea Monga or Death by a Thousand Cuts

Yes, I'm aware that she hasn't been fired, but suspended but that in itself is an injustice. Her lawyers state the school will not renew her contract under any circumstances despite the diocese's tepid denial to the effect that they will not make hiring decisions "until late spring."

The thing is, and this is a constant I perceive in the administrative culture across our local churches, that if "they" don't want you - "they" is a social network consisting of the formal administrative staff of a bishop, his formal and informal advisers, or the bishop himself as the person with ultimate authority, alone or with all or some of his staff and advisers - "they" will make things so hard for the person they've targeted that the target has no choice but to resign whatever his or her ministry or position might be for the sake of their sanity, dignity, and sense of self-worth.

"They" will follow the playbook of what we call in Puerto Rico pelea monga (literally "flabby fighting" in the sense of inflicting a person's moral or administrative "death by a thousand little cuts") - consists of administrative inaction or slowdown affecting the victim's bureacratic existence; erecting increasingly insurmountable bureaucratic barriers, cutting off information flows; isolating the hapless person from peers; and delivering the victim to a life of utter professional and personal uncertainty.

This is all too common in Catholic local government circles I'm afraid. The end of this playbook is to avoid confrontation and false promises and representations made by people in authority that will cost them later. Also, to cool tempers, and anything that might compromise the local church's stance in the face of her critics - in this case, gay rights advocates. The playbook also aims at driving the problem away, instead of solving it with the charity the Gospel demands of all of us when treating people as persons, not as disposable accouterments to the life and government of the local church. It also dilutes the participants' sense of individual responsibility for the evil visited upon their target by convincing them that the outcome was "God's will".

I'm sure that "they" - as defined above - expected that Mrs. Jannuzi would submit to her fate quietly and then fade into the woodwork. I'm sure they were infuriated when she refused to.

All this could have been avoided had the diocese distanced herself not from Mrs. Jannuzi's truth-telling, but perhaps from her choice of words, while supporting her right to express her mind and avoiding punishing her altogether. Now's too late. "They" have become involved and "they" don't want to lose face. Mrs. Jannuzi should demand from the diocese a clear settlement of her state in black-and-white and ready herself for a continuing pelea monga until her opponents score their triumph.

Let us pray for Patricia Jannuzi: may she be reinstated and restored to her former position of respect and consideration, and may the Lord guide Bishop Bootkoski to a just and equitable decision in her case. Let us pray also for all our local churches, that the Spirit of God and not the spirit of bureaucracy and weakness,reigns and prevails in all the churches.


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Moral Issues; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: catholic; patriciajannuzi
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81 posted on 03/27/2015 1:42:42 PM PDT by xone
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To: Dutchboy88
I can't imagine what your problem is.

Yes, I wrote that post.

And the 73-book canon was in place (if by "in place" one means "widely known and accepted in practice") before it was "declared" to be so. These declarations by Councils are not innovations or impositions, they are recognitions of what was already the practice of the Churches. "Confirm the brethren."

There's a little ambiguity about the term "Roman" Catholic Church, Anglicans who wished to refer to themselves as "Anglo Catholic" first coined the term "Roman Catholic" to distinguish those in union with Rome from themselves and to assert the propriety of applying the term "Catholic" to themselves.

But we trace the birth of the Catholic Church, not to Westminster or Rome but to Jerusalem, not to the Reformation but to Pentecost, and not to Peter as a quasi-monarchical figure at the Vatican but to Peter who was Christ's appointed Shepherd (John 21:15-17), selected as the one who was to "confirm the brethren," the first among the Twelve.

So what do you mean by "before there was a Roman Catholic Church"? Before Pentecost, before the Anglicans, or before --- what?

82 posted on 03/27/2015 2:45:24 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Blessed be God - Blessed be His Holy Name - Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
"I can't imagine what your problem is."

I don't have a problem...except the error promulgated by the Romanist organization that has enslaved many nice folks...like you.

"So what do you mean by "before there was a Roman Catholic Church"? Before Pentecost, before the Anglicans, or before --- what?"

I mean exactly what I wrote...the Roman Catholic Church shows up between 300 - 400AD. You perhaps believe their line about Peter being the first Roman pope, but this is not only absent in the Scriptures (yes, the Scriptures that were in place prior to Roman domination), but it does not comport with ordinary history records. Of course Rome has concocted several lists of "popes" along the way, some of which were in place at the same time, some of which had mistresses, etc. But, Rome's "proof" of its authority attempts to use the Scriptures (yes, 66 books/letters), but denies its story.

This is a myopic, self-proving argument that can be manufactured by anyone (read that, the Mormons use this, the Scientologists use this, even Ellen G White and the 7th Dayers use this). But, the true gathering of believers traces its beginnings not to 1st cent. Jerusalem, but to Abraham and includes all those rescued of God by grace, through faith (Heb. 11), and that not of ourselves (Eph 2)...it has always been a gift of God, not of works lest any man/woman boast. The blood of Jesus reached back to all the rescued and forward to this very day. So, I guess we predate your gang.

And, no, the Apocrypha, was not widely recognized as Scriptural (inspired like the 66).

83 posted on 03/27/2015 3:15:14 PM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: Dutchboy88
Peter was Bishop of Rome, and every one of his successors as Bishop of Rome shared in the Petrine ministry: feeding the lambs and sheep, exercsing the power of the keys, binding and loosing, confirming the brethren.

This ministry has been exercised in different forms and ways by different men in different centuries, and perhaps that's why you don't think there was a "pope" or a "Catholic Church" before the 4th or 5th century. But in this you are wrong: because you don't see the development of a sacred institution as it responds to historical challenges and new situations.

You will not find in Peter and his immediate successors a "monarchical" papacy, but will find him to be exercising, in his circumstances, and in an early form, the same ministry.

84 posted on 03/28/2015 5:08:13 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Blessed be God - Blessed be His Holy Name - Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

While Peter was a good friend of Jesus, the fact that he often slipped into a very skewed view of the Gospel is spelled out plainly in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. He had a tendency to hide in his Jewishness and was soundly (and publicly) rebuked by Paul, the apostle sent to the Gentiles (that’s you and me). Check Paul’s letter to the Roman believers and see if you find any trace of Peter’s supremacy...I find only Jesus. But, if you need to have some sort of “worldly organization” to feel safe, I leave you to that. But, out here, out of the camp, with Jesus, there is freedom and light and safety.


85 posted on 03/28/2015 8:25:26 AM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: Dutchboy88
No one ever said Peter (Kephas) was "impeccable": whithout fault or sin. That's perfectly obvious.

There's no evidence whatsoever that ANY of the Apostles were appointed on the basis of merit: certainly not Peter, an impetuous man whose failings are all there in the honest chronicle of Scripture. Yet his threefold denial of Christ, so plainly and painfully recounted in the Gospel, culminated in his threefold reassertion of his love of Christ, and then Jesus' threefold commissioning of him to his new vocation as shepherd of Christ's whole flock: "Feed my lambs, Feed my lambs, Feed my sheep." (John 21:15)

This doesn't make Peter impeccable. It does make his chief shepherd of the flock after the Lord ascends on high. Correction he still needs, as do we all; sometimes a face-to-face confrontation he needs; but he is shepherd nevertheless, and thus will not (even despite his faults) lead the whole flock off a cliff of false doctrine.

86 posted on 03/28/2015 9:35:26 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Blessed be God - Blessed be His Holy Name - Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Please re-read my post...I am not arguing his lack of “impeccability”. I am arguing that there is no reference to his becoming your first “pope” anywhere but in your own documents. You folks made up popism, sacerdotalism, purgatory, genuflecting, even the so-called sacraments out of whole cloth. All I am saying is that if you read the text it points to being saved by grace, through faith, and none of that coming from us...it is all a gift, NOT BY WORKS lest anyone turn into a RC. This is what the first century believers held and taught and reported. But, Rome has morphed this into a monstrous cult. If that is what you prefer, so be it. But, those of us who find ourselves clinging only to Jesus don’t need the trappings of man-made traditions.

And, all of your posts do not explain why this woman should have been abandoned by a boss who says criticizing homosexuality is a deed worth being fired. All the while your pope smiles and visits with the homos. You can believe Jesus is “Lamb-like”, but it is certainly not the Jesus in the text. “I came to bring a sword.”


87 posted on 03/28/2015 10:13:46 AM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: Dutchboy88
"And, all of your posts do not explain why this woman [Patricia Jannuzzi] should have been abandoned by a boss who says criticizing homosexuality is a deed worth being fired"

This shows you to be, as we say in English Lit, an unreliable narrator. I am one of the most active of all activists defending Patti Jannuzzi at Free Republic. If you don't comprehended that, you haven't comprehended much.

I think this wraps up this particular conversation. I'm off to cook some pasta.

88 posted on 03/28/2015 10:33:21 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ( "Everything you see I owe to spaghetti." - Sophia Loren)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Please tell me which one of your posts roundly criticized the homo-loving “Bishop, Father, Msgr, Cardinal, or Buzzard”? Or...just enjoy the pasta...man, that sounds good.


89 posted on 03/28/2015 10:37:54 AM PDT by Dutchboy88
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To: Dutchboy88
This'll take you less than 1 minute. Search each one with the searchword "Mrs Don-o". <> http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?m=all;o=time;q=quick;s=Jannuzzi>

Your report on this homework assignment can come later.

90 posted on 03/28/2015 11:26:41 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ( "Everything you see I owe to spaghetti." - Sophia Loren)
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Well done!

Thank you.

91 posted on 03/29/2015 3:58:12 AM PDT by Northern Yankee (Where Liberty dwells, there is my Country. - Benjamin Franklin)
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