Gay Catholic Music Director Files Discrimination Complaint Against Church For Unfair Termination

by Jack Jenkins

Colin Collette, a gay man, worked as the music director of Holy Family Catholic Community in Inverness, Illinois for 17 years, preparing songs for worship and orchestrating liturgy for weekly services. When Illinois embraced marriage equality in June, Collete and William Nifong, his partner of five years, celebrated a month later by getting engaged in Rome “in the shadow of St. Peter’s Basilica” and quickly announcing their betrothal on Facebook.

Instead of congratulating the couple on their upcoming nuptials, however, the priest at Holy Family responded by immediately asking for Collette’s resignation, saying his homosexuality violated tenets of the Catholic Church. When Collette refused, he was promptly fired.Colin-Collette-x400

“’Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is the policy in the [Catholic] church,” Collette told ABC 7, a local news affiliate, in August. “I guess as long as you’re willing to live the lie, you’re safe.”

The church’s decision outraged many in the suburban parish, several of whom have held prayer vigils and voiced public support for their former music director. On Thursday, however, Collette took the matter to court, filing a federal discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Cook County Commission on Human Rights. The move is a preliminary step towards filing a formal lawsuit; if the EEOC agrees with Collete’s complaint, it can either grant him the right to sue his former employer or even sue the church on his behalf.

“It is with deep regret that I have had to pursue this course of action,” Collette said in a press conference on Thursday. “I have chosen to enter into a marriage, as is my right under Illinois law, and perhaps I can open the door to other men and women who the church has chosen to exclude from the community.”

Collette, who holds a Masters in Divinity, named Holy Family’s priest and a parish manager in his complaint, saying his firing amounted to discrimination on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, and marital status. He also contended that his employer was well aware of both his homosexuality and his relationship with Nifong before he was let go, as the two were active members of the community.

“Our pastor knows both of us,“ Collette told the Chicago Tribune. “We’ve been to many social functions together, including the 20th anniversary of the parish.”

Collete’s complaint challenges the unusually broad power afforded to religious institutions to dictate who they hire. In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that faith-based employers are allowed to hire and fire people for reasons that would otherwise be discriminatory because of a so-called “ministerial exception.” Although they are still technically subject to anti-discrimination policies, religious groups effectively have full control over “ministry” positions, a broadly-defined classification that extends beyond ordained clergy.

The case also poses a public test to the newly-appointed Archbishop of Chicago, Blasé Cupich. When Pope Francis tapped the former Bishop of Washington for the illustrious position in September, left-leaning progressives lauded the decision as a progressive step, citing Cupich’s passionate support for immigration reform and his willingness to condemn anti-gay bullying as “hateful and disrespectful” to “human dignity.” But while Cupich is far more progressive than Cardinal Francis George, his predecessor compared organizers of the Chicago Pride Parade to the Ku Klux Klan, he has not shown a willingness to break from traditional Catholic understandings of sexuality: Cupich openly opposed Washington state’s 2012 vote to embrace marriage equality, and has yet to respond to Collete’s complaint.

Collette’s filing is part of a growing number of LGBT people who are fighting back against the Catholic Church for firing people based on their sexuality. Colleen Simon, a Catholic food pantry worker in Kansas City, Missouri, who was fired in May for being gay, is suing the local diocese, saying they were aware of her orientation before her job was terminated. Meanwhile, several Catholic schoolteachers in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati are refusing to sign a new contract that reclassifies teachers as ministers and asks them to “refrain from any conduct or lifestyle” that is “in contradiction to Catholic doctrine or morals.”

Complete Article HERE!

Report: Archbishop Nienstedt being investigated by firm hired by archdiocese

Surprise, Surprise!

By Grant Gallicho

Archbishop John Nienstedt of St. Paul and Minneapolis is being investigated for “multiple allegations” of inappropriate sexual conduct with seminarians, priests, and other men, according to the archbishop’s former top canon lawyer, Jennifer Haselberger. The investigation is being conducted by a law firm hired by the archdiocese. Nienstedt denies the allegations.

Nienstedt02The investigation was spurred by information the archdiocese received late last year, according to another person with knowledge of the investigation. (This inquiry is not related to a December 2013 accusation that Nienstedt touched a boy’s buttocks during a confirmation photo shoot. The archbishop denied that allegation, and, following an investigation, the county prosecutor did not bring charges. Reportedly the case has been reopened.) Near the end of the year, it came to light that a former Twin Cities priest had accused Nienstedt of making unwanted sexual advances.

The archbishop agreed to hire an outside law firm to investigate the accusation. By early 2014, the archdiocese had selected the top-ranked Minneapolis firm of Greene Espel. Nienstedt, along with auxiliary bishops Lee Piché and Andrew Cozzens, flew to Washington, D.C., to inform the apostolic nuncio of the allegations. Over the course of the investigation, lawyers have interviewed current and former associates and employees of Nienstedt—including Haselberger, who resigned in protest in April 2013.

“Based on my interview with Greene Espel—as well as conversations with other interviewees—I believe that the investigators have received about ten sworn statements alleging sexual impropriety on the part of the archbishop dating from his time as a priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit, as Bishop of New Ulm, and while coadjutor and archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” Haselberger told me. What’s more, “he also stands accused of retaliating against those who refused his advances or otherwise questioned his conduct.”

The allegations are nothing more than a “personal attack against me due to my unwavering stance on issues consistent with church teaching, such as opposition to so-called same-sex marriage,” Nienstedt said in a written statement. He also suspects that accusers are coming forward because of “difficult decisions” he has made, but, citing privacy laws, he would not elaborate.

“I have never engaged in sexual misconduct and certainly have not made any sexual advances toward anyone,” Nienstedt told me. “The allegations are a decade old or more, prior to my service as archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis,” he continued, emphasizing that “none of the allegations involve minors or illegal or criminal behavior.” The “only accusation,” Nienstedt explained, is of “improper touching (of the person’s neck),” and was made by a former priest.

The archbishop has been under intense scrutiny since September 2013, when Haselberger went public with damning accounts of the way the archdiocese had dealt with clerics accused of sexual misconduct. One of those priests was Curtis Wehmeyer, a man with a history of inappropriate sexual behavior who was nevertheless promoted by Nienstedt to become pastor of two parishes. Wehmeyer went on to molest children at one of those parishes. One of the questions investigators have been asking is whether the archbishop had an unprofessional relationship with Wehmeyer.

“Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer was an archdiocesan priest and I was his archbishop,” Nienstedt said. He characterized his relationship with Wehmeyer as “professional” and “pastoral,” and explained that it preceded his “learning of [Wehmeyer’s] sexual abuse of minors.”

Nienstedt was named an auxiliary bishop of Detroit in 1996, and became bishop of New Ulm, Minnesota, in 2001. Just six years later he was appointed coadjutor of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. He was installed as archbishop in 2008. Before long, Nienstedt had established one of the signature issues of his episcopate: homosexuality. His statements on that issue add controversy to the investigation of his own behavior.

“Those who actively encourage or promote homosexual acts…formally cooperate in a grave evil and, if they do so knowingly and willingly, are guilty of mortal sin,” Nienstedt wrote late in 2007. That echoed a column he wrote the year before—while bishop of New Ulm—cautioning Catholics against watching Brokeback Mountain, a film about two married cowboys who fall for one another. He wondered whether Hollywood knew just how dangerous their “agenda” was: “Surely they must be aware that they have turned their backs on God and the standards of God in their quest to make evil look so attractive.”

Before the 2010 midterm elections, Nienstedt turned his attention to the burgeoning gay-marriage movement. He recorded an introduction on a DVD opposing gay marriage, which was sent to four hundred thousand Minnesota Catholics. The same year a Catholic mother wrote to him pleading for acceptance for her gay son. He recommended she consult the Catechism. “Your eternal salvation may well depend upon a conversation [sic] of heart on this topic,” he replied. And in 2012, Nienstedt led a coalition of religious leaders pushing for an amendment to the state constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. Reportedly, Nienstedt committed $650,000 to those efforts. The amendment failed.

But by the fall of 2013, Nienstedt’s focus would be pulled away from gay marriage to an issue of greater urgency: the sexual abuse of children by priests. In September of last year, Minnesota Public Radio reported that the archdiocese was aware of Fr. Curtis Wehmeyer’s history of misconduct when Nienstedt promoted him to pastor. He refused to inform the parish staff of Wehmeyer’s troubling past. The cleric eventually molested the children of a parish employee.

As MPR and other news outlets continued coverage of that and related stories, Archbishop Nienstedt announced a task force that would review “any and all issues” related to clergy misconduct. Its fifty-three page report—released April 14—criticized the archdiocese for “serious shortcomings,” but did not mention the investigation of Nienstedt. That’s because the task force “was established to review the archdiocesan policies on clergy misconduct toward minors,” Nienstedt said. By the time Greene Espel learned about the task force, the group had “disbanded,” having completed its report, according to Bishop Piché. “Nevertheless,” he continued, “a call from an archdiocesan official promptly was made to a former member of the task force.” The task force has stated that it will not speak publicly about its report. *

Around the time the task force published its report, Greene Espel attorneys phoned Haselberger to set up a meeting, but she was skeptical. “There is no precedent in the church for an investigation of this kind,” she told me. Since she resigned last year, “the archdiocese has been distinctly hostile toward me.” That “caused me to wonder if this was some sort of trick.” Her skepticism diminished when she met with the lawyers days later. They produced a January 31 letter from Nienstedt to auxiliary Bishop Lee Piché authorizing him to oversee an investigation, Haselberger said, along with an e-mail naming another priest to act as a liaison between the archdiocese and the investigators.

“I did this for the benefit of the archdiocese,” Nienstedt explained, because “I knew it would be unfair to ignore the allegations simply because I knew them to be false.” And that’s what he would have done if he learned of similar allegations against any priest, the archbishop said.

Haselberger informed Greene Espel attorneys of a letter she’d seen from Wehmeyer to Nienstedt thanking the archbishop for a recent dinner. She also told investigators that the archbishop had asked for assistance in arranging for him to visit Wehmeyer in the inpatient sex-offender treatment program where he was residing before sentencing. At the time he had not met with Wehmeyer’s victims or their family, according to Haselberger. The archbishop denied that he sought such assistance, and said he never visited Wehmeyer in prison or at any treatment facility.

Greene Espel lawyers wanted to know whether Nienstedt asked to visit any other detained priests. Two other priests had been in jail while Nienstedt was in St. Paul. They had both been released by January of 2013, when Nienstedt wanted to visit Wehmeyer. “To my knowledge,” Haselberger replied, “he never visited them or expressed any desire to do so.” As far as she could recall, Nienstedt struck up a friendship with Wehmeyer “after I warned him about Wehmeyer’s history in 2009.” Nienstedt said that the two had a “professional, pastoral relationship” before he learned that Wehmeyer had abused children.

Haselberger asked the Green Espel attorneys what the firm planned to do with the information it was gathering. “They said that their task was to investigate, and that they would be providing a report to the archdiocese,” she said. Once the report is complete, Nienstedt told me, it will be given to the pope’s ambassador to the United States, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who will presumably inform the pope about its contents.

“I pray that the truth would come out as a result of the investigation,” Nienstedt said.

Complete Article HERE!

Students rally around tux-wearing teen left out of yearbook

By Jill Tucker and Henry K. Lee

Hundreds of students at a San Francisco Catholic school wore ties to class Friday to protest an administrative decision to keep the graduation photo of a female student wearing a tuxedo out of the yearbook.

Jessica UrbinaThe outcry became contagious as word spread across social media and support for Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory senior Jessica Urbina flowed in from around the world.

Late in the day, school officials said the events had “sparked a campus-wide dialogue which will result in a revision of policy.” The statement made no mention of changes to the class of 2014’s yearbook.

A beaming Urbina, who along with girlfriend Katie Emanuel wore a tie to school Friday, told reporters, “I’m appreciative of everything, like really I’m so frickin’ glad that my fellow classmates are rallying behind me. I’ve ever felt more love than I do right now.”

She added, “I’ve seen people with all the ties. Honestly, I’ve cried multiple times, overwhelmed with all this support, so I just want to thank everybody who’s supporting me right now.”

The senior portrait in question showed Urbina, 18, wearing a black tux, a black bow tie and a broad, dimpled smile. Her tuxedo went against an Archdiocese of San Francisco policy requiring female students to wear dresses in yearbook photos, school officials said.

It was unclear when the school made the decision not to publish the photo in the yearbook, but Urbina’s brother, Michael, and classmates started the social media campaign Thursday evening. He tweeted his support Thursday: “As a former SHC student, feminist, LGBTQIA ally, and most importantly, a BROTHER, I stand in solidarity with my sister, 110% #JessicasTux”

After hours of silence, school officials released a statement Friday afternoon: “With each of our students we strive to affirm the value, worth and intrinsic dignity of all, and to foster a supportive and nurturing learning environment. The resulting meaningful discourse and reflection on the practices and policies of the school are at the heart of our mission as an inclusive, Catholic community of faith.”

Many of the students who wore ties and bow ties of all colors – and at least one tuxedo shirt – said they couldn’t comment because administrators told them not to talk to the media, but some did express opinions.

“I believe it’s right to show herself for who she really is,” said junior Erik Wassmer as he walked between the school’s two buildings in the Cathedral Hill neighborhood. “It’s sad her picture has been taken out of the yearbook.”

One student, who gave only his first name, Charles, said the administrative decision was “pretty messed up. Why would somebody be excluded from a yearbook?” he said. “Just because they didn’t wear a skirt?”students at Sacred Heart Cathedral Preporatory

Another student, wearing a bright yellow tie, said she supported Jessica and was proud of her school. “I think it shows our school can really come together,” she said before hurrying off under the watchful eye of a school official.

The Northern California American Civil Liberties Union also weighed in on social media.

“Students shouldn’t be forced to conform to outdated gender norms,” spokeswoman Rebecca Farmer tweeted, with a photo of male and female ACLU staff members wearing ties.

Emanuel told reporters: “I support my girlfriend. I love my school, and I want to make it as good as it can be for people like us. I’d like my girlfriend to be proud of the four years that she’s been here, and I’d like it to be resolved in a way that future kids feel proud to be a Fightin’ Irish, feel proud to be who they are.”

Principal Gary Cannon said all students were part of the school’s community.

“Straight, gay, bi, transgender, all that, they’re all welcome at Sacred Heart Cathedral,” he said. “At the same time we’re going to be clear in terms of being a Catholic institution, what the Catholic Church teaches and how do we live out that faith in a meaningful way and in a supportive way with all of our students.”

Michael Urbina, 21, said earlier in the day that the school, his alma mater, simply wanted to put an “alternative picture” of his sister in the yearbook. In a statement, he said he was “extremely sad, frustrated and disappointed” by the situation. “I am embarrassed to call myself an alumni of a high school that does not equitably acknowledge, respect, value and empower all of its students.”

Complete Article HERE!

MDS band director says he was fired for planning same-sex marriage

By OBY BROWN and PHILLIP RAMATI

Mount de Sales Academy students and parents met with the school president Thursday, seeking the reinstatement of the school’s gay band director, who was fired Wednesday.

Students are planning a protest outside the school Friday morning.

Flint DollarBand director Flint Dollar, 32, had posted on his Facebook page that he plans to marry his male partner of six years this summer in Minnesota.

He said Thursday that officials at the Catholic high school in Macon told him he was being fired because of that planned marriage.

Now, students and parents are marshaling forces to try to get him reinstated after more than four years on the job.

They’ve started a Save Flint Dollar page on Facebook, which already has more than 800 likes, a Twitter hashtag for #savedollar, and a Change.org petition. Thursday afternoon, about three dozen parents and students met at Mount de Sales to talk with David Held, the school’s president, asking that Dollar be rehired.

Dollar, a graduate from Howard Payne University with a degree in church organ music and a master’s degree from Mercer University, said he has never hidden his sexual orientation from school officials.

“I have been upfront with the school since my first interview,” he said. “This was not a secret.”

Dollar said he first approached school officials in October about his intention to marry his partner, and no one gave him any indications that it would be an issue.

Dollar said teachers at the school work on one-year contracts, and he was offered a new contract May 1, which he signed and was initially accepted by the school.

But that changed Wednesday when Dollar met with Held.

“I was told that because I was planning to marry my partner that I would not be returning to Mount de Sales next year,” Dollar said.

Mount de Sales’ employment policy says in part: “Mount de Sales Academy is committed to the principles of equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, gender, ancestry, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, or any other characteristic or status that is protected by federal, state, or local law.”

Dollar said he has called a few attorneys and gay organizations to seek advice. He’s been told that the school’s employment policy seemingly should have protected him. Dollar said he’ll likely retain an attorney after the holiday weekend.

A letter from Held sent to Mount de Sales parents did not mention Dollar by name. The letter points out that Mount de Sales is an independent Catholic school sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy.

“As a Mercy School, we operate from a set of core values that is in keeping with the charism of The Sisters of Mercy,” the letter said. “In addition to being a Mercy School, we are a Catholic School located in the Diocese of Savannah, which places us under the direction of The Bishop of Savannah in all questions regarding Catholic identity and the teachings of the Catholic Church on faith and morals.”

Held also said in the letter that he tries his best “to make decisions based on our mission and what is best for our students.”

“Personnel decisions are never easy, and we consider many factors when making such decisions. Teaching ability, knowledge of the subject matter, the ability to communicate with constituents, and the willingness to support the teachings of the Catholic Church are just some of factors considered when making these decisions. Please know that these decisions are never made arbitrarily and are guided always by our mission as a Catholic School.”

Multiple attempts to reach the Diocese of Savannah Thursday were unsuccessful. Attempts to reach members of the school’s board of trustees also were unsuccessful.

Fred Sainz, vice president of communications for the Human Rights Campaign, said Dollar’s case is at least the second one he knows of in which a Catholic school under the direction of the Sisters of Mercy fired a gay teacher planning to marry. The Mount St. Mary Catholic School in Little Rock, Arkansas, fired teacher Tippi McCullough last year after she announced plans to marry her partner.

Dollar said there is nothing in his personnel file “that would preclude me from receiving a job” at the school. Dollar said he was inundated with phone calls and emails Wednesday and Thursday and has been “overwhelmed” at the level of support he’s drawn from students and parents.

Many who attended Thursday’s meeting with Held were emotional as they left.

Amanda Herrold, a rising freshman at Mount de Sales, said Dollar “saved my life in more ways than one.”

“His kids loved him and he loved his kids,” she said. “I was suffering from depression, and he was the only one I could go to. He’s the only person I felt I could talk to.”

Her mother, Laura Herrold, said Dollar has always acted professionally and said the eighth-grade graduation ceremony he organized earlier this week was “phenomenal.”

“He put his heart and soul into it,” Laura Herrold said.

Sonya Foster, whose son is a rising senior at the school and a member of the school marching band under Dollar, said that while Dollar being gay wasn’t a secret, he never flaunted it, either. She said among the parents and students she knows, his sexuality was a non-issue.

“I’m absolutely outraged,” she said. “I’m not willing to stand by and say, ‘That’s OK.’ It speaks to who this man is that all these people are here. He’s been a role model.”

Asked if he would be attending any of the gatherings in Macon, Dollar said no.

“This is their statement. I’m not taking that away from them,” he said of the students.

He added, “I want students to learn that you stand up for what you believe in and what you believe is right.”

Asked if he would return to Mount de Sales now if he were offered back his job, Dollar said, “At this point, I don’t know.”

Complete Article HERE!

Catholic Principal Apologizes For Distributing Photo Of “Poor Role Model” Ellen Degeneres

By Matthew Tharrett

The principal of a Catholic elementary school in Newtown, Pennsylvania is apologizing to parents this week for using an image of Ellen Degeneres holding an Oscar on an invitation to a school dance.Nancy Matteo

In a formal email apology, Nancy Matteo told the parents of St. Andrew Elementary School children that it was she was “obviously NOT thinking” when she sent invitations to the 2014 Eighth Grade Graduation Dance, adding that it was “completely wrong” to use an image of Degeneres because she “lives her life outside the teaching of the Catholic Church.”

Matteo went on to claim that Degeneres is a “poor role model,” going so far as to include an actual definition for “role model”:

“A role model, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary, is a person who is unusually effective or inspiring in some social role, job, position, etc.. This does not describe her at all. We work so hard to be good role models and then I go and do something stupid!”

Philly.com reports that the apologetic email also requests that all invitations be returned to the school at once. “I will personally destroy them,” Matteo writes.

Ken Gavin, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, released the following statement, claiming that Matteo apologized on her own after receiving complaints from parents:

“All Catholic schools in the Archdiocese are firmly rooted in Gospel-based values and the teachings of the Church. As such, it is expected that any promotional materials developed by these schools would feature images and themes that correspond with their core mission and identity. That approach is logical and our school families have a right to expect it.”

Keep on doing the Lord’s work, Nancy!

Complete Article HERE!