Teacher Fired for Marrying Divorced Man to Sue Catholic School

[weary1969]

A San Antonio teacher plans to sue her former employer, a Catholic high school, saying she was fired for marrying a man who had been divorced, a proceeding not recognized by the Catholic Church, the San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday.

Marquis LaFortune, 25, filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after her Nov. 22 ceremony. She claims that once the school found out her fiancé had been divorced, Deacon Patrick Cunningham told her she had three options: seek an annulment, resign or be fired.

“I would have resigned if I'd felt like I'd done something wrong,” LaFortune told the Express-News last week. “I couldn't get out of bed. It's just been this cloud. It was supposed to be the best week of my life, and I had to pull myself together for the ceremony.”

Central Catholic High School said federal law upholds the institution's decision.

“We have very clear policies on what we expect from Catholic people on our faculty, and there has been a violation of that,” Brother Peter Pontolillo told the Express-News. “When a person does something that is obviously contrary to everything that our Catholic school stands for, we cannot just look through our fingers.”

Raised in the Catholic faith, LaFortune had transferred to her fiancé's nondenominational church before the conflict unfolded, the Express-News reported.

Since Central Catholic High School regularly hires non-Catholic teachers, LaFortune argued that since she no longer attended a Catholic church, she should not be held accountable to the church's laws.

The school was not persuaded.

“Do you know what the definition of scandal is?” Pontolillo told the Express-News. “If I present myself as Catholic to an institution that's Catholic, and I practice that Catholicism in the institution by attending school Masses and receiving communion and then suddenly make a decision that is published that [I am] now going to go against that Catholicism.”

LaFortune found out on her honeymoon that her husband's previous marriage had, in fact, been annulled. She plans to fight the school's decision and file a lawsuit.

[Bakes]

I wish her luck... she has no case.

[WestCoast]

dem RC people FULL OF SHIT
a relative of mine had to PAY the Roman Catholic Church to get his TWO MARRIAGES ruled that they never happened WTF...never occoured
what a bunch of f**king hypocrits

[weary1969]

Pay yuh say.

[WestCoast]

Pay yuh say.

well, the church called it a processing/administrative/service fee 

[daryn]

Pay yuh say.

well, the church called it a processing/administrative/service fee 

what magnitude fee we talking bout here? is it a fixed fee?  does it vary by diocese/archdiocese/province? 

Nominally, what level of church hierarchy has to approve the annulment? 

just curious as to the machinations involved.

edit: perhaps I could have been less lazy in pursuing the information (some answers to be found here)
highlights:

• you could start the appeal on the parish level and have your priest carry it to a tribunal or go straight yourself
• could be expected to take 16 months
• usual fee is ~$500 in the US but varies from church to church.  No applications are turned down because of inability to pay.
• supposed level of difficulty: hard (I suspect YMMV) 

[verycute1]

I was just coming to paste from the same article

[WestCoast]

YET!!!
for MANY years, the leaders of the RC Church have PROTECTED priests who molested kids.....amazing

but, their ARE the true church

[truetrini]

Catholic is the WORSE RELIGIONTHE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN!

I could care who vex.  Dem bull little boys for ever and get away with it saying all have sinned and fallen short of God's glory.  de nasty f**kers and dem!

And little girls get bulld too, not to mention all the widows dey tief after dey husband dead...de nasty f**kers...oh ah said that already!

Oh and convent girls was de easiest ones to get to take off dey drawers too!

[capodetutticapi]

ah tell allyuh over and over RC is de most corrupt organisation in de world.

[truetrini]

Matthew 8:14  And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.

So imagine according to them catholics priests cyar marry and Peter was de first Pope, yet he had wife?

Mark 1:30 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.

Luke 4:38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.

Dem always bowing to statues etc. and de Bible dey claim to be keepers of and followers of says this:

Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God...

yuh not even suppose to make dem tings yet dem have ah whole indusrty spawned jes to make statue fuh dem to "bow" to.


Dem want yuh to confess sins to priests and ask Mary and odder saints to intecede on yuh behalf...Bible says:

I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 6:9, 12 After this manner...pray ye: Our Father... forgive us....

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus [not Mary, not saints, not priests, not the pope];

I John 2:1, ...And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And meh last bit ah soap box preaching..

De catholics does say dat Peter is de foundadtion of de Church...what de Bible say about dat?

1 Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected [Jesus], the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Dem is de wuss!

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us and grants us the petitions that we have desired of Him.

allyuh making meh remember meh Bible School days.

[dinho]

Matthew 8:14  And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever.

So imagine according to them catholics priests cyar marry and Peter was de first Pope, yet he had wife?

Mark 1:30 But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.

Luke 4:38 And he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. And Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever; and they besought him for her.

Dem always bowing to statues etc. and de Bible dey claim to be keepers of and followers of says this:

Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God...

yuh not even suppose to make dem tings yet dem have ah whole indusrty spawned jes to make statue fuh dem to "bow" to.


Dem want yuh to confess sins to priests and ask Mary and odder saints to intecede on yuh behalf...Bible says:

I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Matthew 6:9, 12 After this manner...pray ye: Our Father... forgive us....

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus [not Mary, not saints, not priests, not the pope];

I John 2:1, ...And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

And meh last bit ah soap box preaching..

De catholics does say dat Peter is de foundadtion of de Church...what de Bible say about dat?

1 Corinthians 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected [Jesus], the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Dem is de wuss!

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, he hears us and grants us the petitions that we have desired of Him.

allyuh making meh remember meh Bible School days.

God is Love!