A long-time teacher at a Catholic school in New Jersey has been suspended over comments made about homosexuality on her personal Facebook page.
The drumbeat to punish her began with former students, including a reality TV cast member and the nephew of Susan Sarandon.
Patricia Jannuzzi teaches at the Immaculata School, the parish school of Immaculate Conception Church in Somerville, New Jersey. Her trouble started when she responded to something LGBT provocateur Dan Savage said to Dr. Ben Carson: “Being gay is a choice. Prove it. Suck my dick,” after Dr. Carson said being gay was a choice.
Jannuzzi linked to the story on her personal Facebook page and wrote:
See this is the agenda…one minute they argue that hey (sic) are born this way and it is not a choice to get 14th amendment rights equal protection…bologna…which was carved for permanent characteristics..unchangeable characteristics such as race and disability..but once they in (sic) the 14th amendment they will argue everyone should be able to choose being they (sic) gay or lesbian lifestyle…in other words they want to reengineer western civ into a slow extinction We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of children and humanity!!!!
Tom Robinson, a 2001 graduate of Immaculata, started a petition calling Jannuzzi’s comments “hate speech” and “homophobic and short-sighted… disturbing and degrading” and “demanding that hate speech is eradicated for our Immaculata Family.”
Greg Bennett, who is gay and had Jannuzzi as a teacher in 2004, asked his 165,000 Twitter followers to sign Robinson’s petition. Bennett, a former cast member of Real Housewives of New Jersey, called Jannuzzi a “nightmare dumpster human.” Bennett also took umbrage at Jannuzzi’s Facebook call to “close the borders.”
Susan Sarandon even got involved, sharing a letter her gay nephew sent to his former teacher Jannuzzi: “I am certain that the pope himself would take issue with your extreme point of view on homosexuality.” Sarandon wrote on her Facebook page, “High School is a tough time anyway….students don’t need teachers making it even more difficult.”
At first all the school did was order Jannuzzi to take her Facebook page down. They also “investigated” that comments like hers were not a part of her “curriculum.” Two days later the school announced Jannuzzi had been suspended. The letter, from the Monsignor who runs the school, insists the school adheres to the teachings of the Church on “the sanctity of marriage” but “follow Jesus Christ in welcoming all people” except Jannuzzi and those like her of course.
Jannuzzi has worked in various roles for Immaculate Conception Church for going on 30 years. Besides teaching in the school, she also heads the parish office of the New Evangelization, Stewardship and Adult Faith Formation. She also heads something called the St. Thomas More Apostolate “to help insure that our laws are infused with Christian morals and virtues” specifically “life, religious freedom, family life, and moral/ethical issues.”
One graduate who is supportive of Jannuzzi tells Breitbart News, “The bottom line is that she’s been working at the parish and at the school for over 30 years. And they are now shocked, shocked that she is active and vocal on Catholic moral issues.”
Professor Robert George of Princeton, a noted defender of man-woman marriage and religious freedom, tells Breitbart News:
As Matthew Franck has noted, Pope Benedict has said that undermining marriage as the union of Man and woman harms human dignity and “threatens humanity itself.”
Pope Francis has said that same-sex marriage cones from “the father of lies”– the devil.
Are they disqualified from teaching or preaching at Immaculata?
What an irony’–and disgrace—that in the name of inclusion a faithful Catholic woman is being thrown by Catholic school officials to a mob led by Susan Sarandon and an actor on Real Housewives of New Jersey.
So far Jannuizzi has remained silent on the issue.
Follow Austin Ruse on Twitter @austinruse.
