Posted on 06/08/2013 6:24:42 AM PDT by markomalley
A local politician says he was asked to step aside as the commencement speaker at a Catholic high school in Columbus because he has been an advocate for same-sex marriage rights.
Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady offered the explanation yesterday after a parent told The Dispatch he had failed to show up at Saturday’s graduation at Bishop Ready High School on the Hilltop.
O’Grady, a 1982 Ready graduate, said Principal Celene Seamen asked him to give the speech about two months ago, but he was told last week that he would not be needed. He said he was told that the decision came from Columbus Bishop Frederick Campbell and was based on the commissioner’s co-chairmanship of the Freedom to Marry initiative, which supports overturning the state’s ban on gay marriage.
O’Grady was asked to serve on the initiative more than a year ago, and his political views on gay marriage have been public for much longer.
He said he was disheartened because he had been looking forward to talking to the graduates, many of whom were children of students with whom he had attended the school more than 30 years ago.
“I am sad that I wasn’t able to give a commencement speech at my alma mater,” O’Grady said. “I was very much looking forward to it.”
Seamen and diocesan spokesman George Jones did not respond to repeated calls and emails seeking comment.
The decision to revoke O’Grady’s invitation came less than three months after the diocese fired a gay physical-education teacher at Bishop Watterson High School in Clintonville. The firing came after the teacher, Carla Hale, had the name of her partner published in a newspaper obituary.
The Catholic Church considers any sex outside marriage between one man and one woman to be immoral. Regarding the Hale matter, Campbell has said it is his responsibility to maintain the Catholic identity of the institutions under his purview.
Bob Bair, whose two daughters attend Bishop Ready, said he heard rumors in the days leading up to the ceremony that the commissioner would not be attending.
One of his daughters, who will be a senior this fall, attended the commencement and told him that the program still listed O’Grady as the speaker. Students were told by Seamen that something had come up and the commissioner would not be able to speak.
Seamen gave the speech herself.
Bair said it was out of character for O’Grady to miss an event that obviously would mean a lot to him.
“He doesn’t schedule things and then blow them off,” said Bair, who attended Ready with O’Grady. “I knew it must have been some serious issue.”
Bair said O’Grady has been a proactive member of the alumni community at Ready, contributing to school fundraisers and sponsoring sports teams even though his own children attend other schools.
He said the commissioner gave a well-received speech to National Honor Society inductees in the school’s chapel last fall.
O’Grady said that he didn’t blame school officials. “I’m very appreciative of their invitation,” he said.
One for God’s side! How did that slip past?
This is something about Catholicism that I do not understand.
There cannot be a living confirmed Catholic who does not know the teaching of the Church regarding marriage.
How is it possible a) for a proponent of men or women pretending marriage to be INVITED to address a Catholic assembly, b) for the obviously necessary correction to be a surprise, c) and to be an occasion for Catholics to OBJECT?
Catholics are free to leave, right? I don’t get it.
Yes, Catholics can leave if they don’t want to live according to the Catholic faith.
Many “Catholics” believe that they know better than the Church so they remain and try to change things instead of leaving and living their beliefs somewhere else.
Because you are trying to understand the actions of these elitist, emotion-based CINOs through reasoning, you will be frustrated unless you understand that they don’t want to be Catholic; they want to win.
I don’t understand your question. Catholics are free to leave what exactly? The church? To become Presbyterians? What?
Same thing with the Church. Lots of goats among the sheep in need of a vigilant shepherd to remove them from the flock.
If one is baptized Catholic, one will remain so, barring excommunication. Many Catholics decided long ago to believe whatever they wanted to believe, but still consider themselves Catholic, and want the Church to change to suit THEIR beliefs.
Ain't happenin.
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