GAY TEACHER FIRED
Catholics wrestle with teachings as gay employees dismissed
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The pope’s desire for an “open door” church is bumping up against decisions involving gay employees at Catholic schools and institutions.
The issue has stirred debate in Philadelphia since a Catholic elementary school dismissed a teacher who is in a same-sex marriage. Margie Winters says she was open with Mercy Waldron Academy officials about her 2007 marriage to another woman but believes a parent’s complaint to the archdiocese forced the school’s hand.
Archbishop Charles Chaput (SHAP’-yoo) says Catholic schools must uphold church teachings, including its ban on same-sex marriage.
An advocacy group says over 50 people have lost their jobs at Catholic institutions over their sexual identity or orientation.
Winters plans to ask the pope for a moratorium on such firings if she gets to meet him next month when he travels to Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families.
Sound:
223-v-32-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor)–The pope’s desire for an “open door” church is bumping up against decisions involving gay employees at Catholic schools and institutions. AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports. (9 Aug 2015)
< 224-c-21-(Steve Coleman, AP religion editor)-“Families, in Philadelphia”-AP Religion Editor Steve Coleman reports that a gay advocacy group counts dozens of employees who have lost their jobs at Catholic institutions for being openly gay. (9 Aug 2015) < FIRED OVER FERTILIZATION Judge cuts amount diocese must pay ex-teacher to $403,608 FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A federal judge has reduced the amount an Indiana Roman Catholic diocese must pay a former teacher who was fired after undergoing fertilization treatment to just over $400,000. The Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend had declined to renew Emily Herx’s contract as a language arts teacher at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School in 2011 because she underwent the treatment. Diocese attorneys say church teachings call in vitro fertilization gravely evil. In the spring of 2012, Herx sued the diocese, contending she had been the victim of gender discrimination and that the diocese treated similarly situated male teachers differently than she had been treated Jurors awarded Herx $1.9 million from the diocese in December, but the Journal-Gazette reports that Judge Robert Miller reduced the damage amount last week. CHURCH DROPS SCOUTS Lancaster church drops Boy Scouts after gay leader decision LANCASTER, S.C. (AP) — A Presbyterian church in Lancaster, South Carolina, says it’s dropping its nearly 50-year association with the Boy Scouts after the organization agreed to allow gay leaders. Multiple media outlets report that the First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church sent a letter to 63 scouts in a troop sponsored by the church saying that it ended its sponsorship of the Boy Scouts on July 31. Church member Buddy Lever says it was a tough decision, but the Boy Scouts’ announcement it would allow gay leaders doesn’t match the church’s beliefs on homosexuality. The scouts are being given an opportunity to join other troops. The Lancaster church is also joining with a group called Trail Life USA, which is a Christian outdoor adventure club. JONESBORO-FACEBOOK COMPLAINT Jonesboro removes Bible verses from Facebook after complaint JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) — The city of Jonesboro, Arkansas, has removed Bible verses from a city-owned Facebook page after receiving complaints from the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The Jonesboro Sun reports that the group complained in a July 31 letter about religious postings on the city’s Dispatch Jonesboro Facebook page. Mayor Harold Perrin said he was not aware of the religious comments and that they have since been removed. More than a dozen Jonesboro city departments have their own Facebook pages — including the city and the police and fire departments. Perrin said he wants all social media pages moved to one server and monitored by the city’s communications director. IMMIGRANT-CHURCH SANCTUARY Immigrant in church sanctuary reaches one-year mark TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A woman seeking to avoid deportation has been taking sanctuary in an Arizona church for one year. Rosa Robles Loreto completed a year of sanctuary at Tucson’s Southside Presbyterian Church on Friday. The 42-year-old was issued an order of deportation after a traffic infraction five years ago resulted in her being turned over to immigration authorities. Robles Loreto has a unique case because her entire family lacks legal status. Her attorney Margo Cowan says other immigrants who have been granted leniency by immigration authorities have had U.S.-born children. Robles Loreto says she will continue to live at the church until she is issued a stay of deportation or until authorities administratively close her case. ISLAMIC STATE Activists: Hundreds of Syrian Christians flee Islamic State BEIRUT (AP) — The head of the Christian Assyrian Network for Human Rights in Syria says hundreds of families have fled the advance of Islamic State fighters. Osama Edward says many Christians around the central Syrian town of Sadad fear that like Yazidis in Iraq and other Christians in Islamic State-controlled territory they could be forced to choose between fleeing, converting to Islam or facing death. Activists said the Islamic State group abducted 230 residents, including dozens of Christians, from the nearby town of Qaryatain in recent days. Activists say some Christians were released, though the fate of the others is still unknown. In February, Islamic State fighters kidnapped more than 220 Assyrian Christians after overrunning several farming communities on the southern bank of the Khabur River in the northeastern province of Hassakeh. Since then, only a few have been released and the fate of the others remains unknown. JORDAN-IRAQI CHRISTIANS Iraqi Christians who fled IS living in limbo while in exile FUHEIS, Jordan (AP) — A year after tens of thousands of Iraqi Christians fled communities overtaken by Islamic State militants, their lives are on hold in exile: They won’t go back to Iraq, saying it’s not safe for Christians, but as refugees they’re barred from working in temporary asylum countries such as Jordan. About 7,000 Christians from northern Iraq have found refuge in Jordan, including about 2,000 living in church-sponsored shelters. On Saturday evening, Patriarch Louis Sako of Iraq’s Chaldean Catholic Church and Jerusalem-based Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal led hundreds of worshippers in an outdoor prayer service in the town of Fuheis, near Amman, to mark a year since the Iraqi Christians’ displacement. The service included a message from Pope Francis, saying the church “does not forget and does not abandon her children who have been exiled on account of their faith.” The words rang hollow to some in the crowd. A 25-year-old Iraqi refugee said he believes “everyone has forgotten us.” VATICAN-POPE Pope recalls horror of atomic bombs 70 years ago VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis says the detonation of atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years ago remains “a permanent warning to humanity” to reject war and ban weapons of mass destruction. The pope during his traditional Sunday blessing recalled the U.S. detonation of atomic weapons as “a tragic event that still arouses horror and revulsion.” He said the bombings of the Japanese cities had become a symbol of mankind’s destructive power when science and technology are put to “distorted use.” U.S. planes dropped two atomic bombs on two days in August 1945, unleashing unprecedented destruction that killed more than 200,000 people and left survivors with lifelong psychological and physical scars. It was the first and only time nuclear weapons have been used. Sound: 162-r-29-(Pope Francis, speaking in Italian to thousands of pilgrims gathers in St. Peter’s Square)–Pope Francis, speaking in Italian, says the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are symbols of the destructive power of man. (9 Aug 2015) < 163-r-14-(Pope Francis, speaking in Italian to thousands of pilgrims gathers in St. Peter’s Square)–Pope Francis, speaking in Italian, calls on all countries to reject war and violence in favor of peace. (9 Aug 2015) < 161-r-19-(Pope Francis, speaking in Italian to thousands of pilgrims gathers in St. Peter’s Square)–Pope Francis, speaking in Italian, marked the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. (9 Aug 2015) < JAPAN-A-BOMB-CATHEDRAL A Nagasaki cathedral remembers the atomic bomb NAGASAKI, Japan (AP) — Just after dawn Sunday, the faithful filed into Urakami Cathedral in the Japanese city of Nagasaki for a Mass tinged with sadness. Seventy years ago, a U.S.-dropped atomic bomb detonated about 550 yards from the church, killing two priests who were hearing confessions and about 30 other people inside. The more than 70,000 who died in Nagasaki in the Aug. 9, 1945, bombing included 8,500 of the cathedral’s 12,000 parishioners, decimating Japan’s largest Christian community. The church has been rebuilt from the rubble, and a sizeable crowd entered the wooden pews for the early morning Mass on Sunday. Later, the community held what has become an annual event: an outdoor procession with the scarred wooden head of a Virgin Mary statue that stood in the main altar at the time of the blast.
