Latest news with #JohnMessinger
The Guardian
5 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
New Orleans teacher fired by Catholic school for being gay says ‘it's just time' for discrimination to stop
A longtime music teacher at a New Orleans-area Catholic school who was essentially fired for being listed in an obituary as another man's widower says he refused to suffer quietly because 'it's just time' for bullying and homophobic discrimination 'to stop'. 'If I can put this out there and bring attention to it and make it easier for some other young, gay educator to stand up to it – then, yeah, I'll do that,' Mark Richards told the radio show Talk Louisiana With Jim Engster on Tuesday. 'I have nothing to lose. 'Let's make some noise about it. That's exactly what I'm planning on doing and what I do.' Richards's comments on the show aired by WRKF in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about 60 miles west of New Orleans, added contours to a dismissal which was first covered locally but then gained international media attention as many in his community and beyond rallied to support him. As the music teacher and band director has put it, he began working at St Francis Xavier school in Metairie, Louisiana, in 2003, two years after he embarked on a relationship with his future husband, John Messinger. Richards's annually renewable employment contract at St Francis Xavier contained a morality clause prohibiting educators from entering into 'a marriage in violation of the rules of the Catholic church', 'actively engaging in homosexual activity' or engaging in other conduct that the document maintains conflicts with the teachings of a religion that does not permit same-sex matrimony within it. The morality clause is required of all teachers at schools that are affiliated with the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans, which St Francis is, though historically it has been selectively enforced. Richards has said he signed the contract and morality clause because he never kept his being gay a secret and was offered the job anyway. Furthermore, when his husband died of a heart attack in September 2023 after about nine years of marriage to him, Richards counted on sympathy and support from many members of the St Francis community. But then, in recent weeks, an evidently disgruntled parent complained to school and archdiocesan officials that Messinger's obituary – published nearly two years earlier – listed Richards as his husband. And on 25 June, as Richards told Engster, the school informed him that it would not renew his employment contract, accusing him of having lied about his lifestyle on previous occasions that he had signed the agreement. Richards, who described being barred from learning the identity of the complaining parent or viewing the complaint itself, soon sent an email to members of the St Francis community sharing the word about his plight. Parents soon organized a petition urging the archdiocese to revisit its firing of Richards, whom the document exalted as 'a beacon of kindness and understanding' in the lives of thousands of students over the years. The petition had garnered more than 4,500 signatures as of Wednesday. Nonetheless, in an email to the St Francis community, school officials declared: 'This decision is final and will not be revisited.' That posture has not gone over well with many in and around St Francis. One of the more typical comments on the petition referred to Richards's dismissal as 'a discriminatory, unkind and intolerant move'. In fact, Richards's treatment at the hands of St Francis contrasted sharply with how past top figures at the church attached to the school lobbied key Louisiana officials to release a priest who had been convicted of raping a child from a sentence of life imprisonment on medical compassion grounds. The campaign helmed by St Francis's pastor at the time, Andrew Taormina, who has since retired, relied on help from an attorney named VM Wheeler III. Wheeler would eventually be himself convicted of molesting a child – an act of abuse that occurred years before, though not reported to authorities until after the lawyer joined New Orleans' Catholic clergy as a deacon. The campaign, however, failed. Robert Melancon died in prison. And Wheeler later died while on both probation and Louisiana's sex offender registry. Melancon's death in November 2018, coincidentally, came three days after the New Orleans archdiocese published a list of priests and deacons faced with credible accusations of child molestation. Less than two years after that disclosure, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection, a proceeding that remained unresolved as of Wednesday. Meanwhile, Richards suggested to Engster that he understood his legal options were limited given that he was between contracts when his employment went unrenewed. Engster also alluded to a federal fourth circuit court of appeals decision that upheld a ruling siding with a North Carolina Catholic high school that fired a gay teacher for announcing plans to marry his partner. Richards said he considered his time at St Francis over, though the Mississippi native had still spoken to an attorney as he explored if there was anything he could do to compel his ex-employers to eliminate the morality clause that cost him his career at the school. 'I don't think it fits,' said Richards, who expressed a wish to somehow 'stop' the 'bullying and discrimination' that he had endured while growing up gay in the infamously conservative southern US. Richards said a public school system in Mississippi had since encouraged him to apply for a job there, citing a shortage of music teachers. 'I don't think finding a job will be too much of a problem, I hope – I pray,' Richards remarked. Whatever happens from here, he said he appreciates how some community members have tried to aid him, especially as he continues grieving his husband daily. 'I'm hanging in there pretty good,' Richards told Engster. But 'every day is an adjustment'.
The Guardian
15 hours ago
- General
- The Guardian
New Orleans teacher fired by Catholic school for being gay says ‘it's just time' for discrimination to stop
A longtime music teacher at a New Orleans-area Catholic school who was essentially fired for being listed in an obituary as another man's widower says he refused to suffer quietly because 'it's just time' for bullying and homophobic discrimination 'to stop'. 'If I can put this out there and bring attention to it and make it easier for some other young, gay educator to stand up to it – then, yeah, I'll do that,' Mark Richards told the radio show Talk Louisiana With Jim Engster on Tuesday. 'I have nothing to lose. 'Let's make some noise about it. That's exactly what I'm planning on doing and what I do.' Richards' comments on the show aired by WRKF in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, about 60 miles west of New Orleans, added contours to a dismissal which was first covered locally but then gained international media attention as many in his community and beyond rallied to support him. As the music teacher and band director has put it, he began working at St Francis Xavier school in Metairie, Louisiana, in 2003, two years after he embarked on a relationship with his future husband, John Messinger. Richards' annually renewable employment contract at St Francis Xavier contained a morality clause prohibiting educators from entering into 'a marriage in violation of the rules of the Catholic church', 'actively engaging in homosexual activity' or engaging in other conduct that the document maintains conflicts with the teachings of a religion that does not permit same-sex matrimony within it. The morality clause is required of all teachers at schools that are affiliated with the Roman Catholic archdiocese of New Orleans, which St Francis is, though historically it has been selectively enforced. Richards has said he signed the contract and morality clause because he never kept his being gay a secret and was offered the job anyway. Furthermore, when his husband died of a heart attack in September 2023 after about nine years of marriage to him, Richards counted on sympathy and support from many members of the St Francis community. But then, in recent weeks, an evidently disgruntled parent complained to school and archdiocesan officials that Messinger's obituary – published nearly two years earlier – listed Richards as his husband. And on 25 June, as Richards told Engster, the school informed him that it would not renew his employment contract, accusing him of having lied about his lifestyle on previous occasions that he had signed the agreement. Richards, who described being barred from learning the identity of the complaining parent or viewing the complaint itself, soon sent an email to members of the St Francis community sharing the word about his plight. Parents soon organized a petition urging the archdiocese to revisit its firing of Richards, whom the document exalted as 'a beacon of kindness and understanding' in the lives of thousands of students over the years. The petition had garnered more than 4,500 signatures as of Wednesday. Nonetheless, in an email to the St Francis community, school officials declared: 'This decision is final and will not be revisited.' That posture has not gone over well with many in and around St Francis. One of the more typical comments on the petition referred to Richards' dismissal as 'a discriminatory, unkind and intolerant move'. In fact, Richards' treatment at the hands of St Francis contrasted sharply with how past top figures at the church attached to the school lobbied key Louisiana officials to release a priest who had been convicted of raping a child from a sentence of life imprisonment on medical compassion grounds. The campaign helmed by St Francis's pastor at the time, Andrew Taormina, who has since retired, relied on help from an attorney named VM Wheeler III. Wheeler would eventually be himself convicted of molesting a child – an act of abuse that occurred years before, though not reported to authorities until after the lawyer joined New Orleans' Catholic clergy as a deacon. The campaign, however, failed. Robert Melancon died in prison. And Wheeler later died while on both probation and Louisiana's sex offender registry. Melancon's death in November 2018, coincidentally, came three days after the New Orleans archdiocese published a list of priests and deacons faced with credible accusations of child molestation. Less than two years after that disclosure, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy protection, a proceeding that remained unresolved as of Wednesday. Meanwhile, Richards suggested to Engster that he understood his legal options were limited given that he was between contracts when his employment went unrenewed. Engster also alluded to a federal fourth circuit court of appeals decision that upheld a ruling siding with a North Carolina Catholic high school that fired a gay teacher for announcing plans to marry his partner. Richards said he considered his time at St Francis over, though the Mississippi native had still spoken to an attorney as he explored if there was anything he could do to compel his ex-employers to eliminate the morality clause that cost him his career at the school. 'I don't think it fits,' said Richards, who expressed a wish to somehow 'stop' the 'bullying and discrimination' that he had endured while growing up gay in the infamously conservative southern US. Richards said a public school system in Mississippi had since encouraged him to apply for a job there, citing a shortage of music teachers. 'I don't think finding a job will be too much of a problem, I hope – I pray,' Richards remarked. Whatever happens from here, he said he appreciates how some community members have tried to aid him, especially as he continues grieving his husband daily. 'I'm hanging in there pretty good,' Richards told Engster. But 'every day is an adjustment'.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
US Catholic school fires teacher after husband's obituary reveals his marriage to a man
A longtime music teacher at a Catholic school in the New Orleans area recently lost his job when it was revealed to an evidently 'disgruntled' parent that he was another man's widower, igniting a scandal within an archdiocese that has otherwise largely been occupied with trying to reorganize its finances in federal bankruptcy court after its clergymen spent decades sexually molesting children. In an email to community members at the archdiocese-run school from which he was dismissed, Mark Richards explained that he had been fired because a parent notified officials about an obituary for his husband, who died of a heart attack in September 2023. Richards' email alluded to how his employment contract at St Francis Xavier school in Metairie, Louisiana, contained a morality clause prohibiting educators from 'contracting a marriage in violation of the rules of the Catholic church' and 'actively engaging in homosexual activity', along with other conduct that the document maintains is inconsistent with the teachings of the religion that does not recognize same-sex matrimony. He wrote that he signed the annually renewable contract and morality clause – which is required of all the archdiocese's teachers but historically has been far from universally enforced – with 'a wink and a nudge since it was no big secret that I am gay'. The St Francis Xavier community was comfortable enough with his marriage to his husband, John Messinger, that 'everyone at the school was very sympathetic and supportive' after his death. But that changed when the parent who alerted local church officials to Messinger's obituary – which listed Richards as his husband – complained. He said he was fired on 25 June as music teacher and band director at St Francis after 21 years at the school, 'and the reason for this termination is that I am a gay man'. 'I have not been in violation of the morality clause for the last two years, and no one can find any incident of my acting inappropriately with anyone – let alone a student,' added Richards, who met Messinger two years before he started working at St Francis and then married him in 2014. Nonetheless, Richards said, all that his superiors would tell him was 'you're fired' after a parent – whose identity was shielded and whom the teacher presumed to be 'disgruntled' – reported discovering his being mentioned in Messinger's obituary. As the New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU reported on Friday, Richards' email garnered him sympathy from many parents at the school which ousted him. A parent-organized petition supporting Richards, calling his firing 'unjust' and exalting him as 'a beacon of kindness and understanding in [students'] lives', had collected about 1,500 signatures, the station and the Louisiana news outlet each noted. One mother, Katheryn Lee, told WDSU: 'I would like to see the morality clause change.' 'I would like the line regarding homosexuality in the morality clause that educators sign to be removed,' Lee said. 'Your identity is not your morality. I hope we have a voice in this.' A father named Rick English told the station he believed the morality clause at the center of Richards' dismissal is 'a violation of human rights' that needed to be reviewed. 'To me, it's a social injustice at this point,' he remarked. Both and WDSU reported that school administrators sent an email to the St Francis community confirming it had not renewed Richards' employment contract while claiming, too, that he had not provided 'a fully accurate description of the employment situation'. But administrators said they could not elaborate, making a reference to unspecified legal considerations. 'This decision is final and will not be revisited,' school officials' email also said, in part. 'We strive to always make decisions that uphold the teachings of the Catholic faith that are in the best interest of our school.' Richards, meanwhile, had written to St Francis parents: 'Teaching your children has been one of the joys of my life, and I treasure the memories.' Still, as he put it to WDSU, Richards felt betrayed by those who opted to fire him. 'It's just a stab in the back,' Richards reportedly said. 'It's just time for this to stop. The rest of the free world does not think homosexuality is a big deal.' St Francis is one of numerous archdiocese of New Orleans affiliates that are being counted on to contribute to what is expected to be a nine-figure settlement resolving a bankruptcy protection case filed by archdiocesan leaders in 2020. Those officials made that chapter 11 bankruptcy filing mainly in an attempt to dispense with hundreds of clergy molestation claims dating back decades as affordably as possible. As of Sunday, the most recent settlement offer was for the archdiocese, its affiliates and its insurers to pay between $180m and $230m to about 600 abuse survivors. But attorneys representing hundreds of those survivors oppose that deal, saying it is far less than the $323m settlement approved in late 2024 in a similar case pitting about 600 clergy abuse claimants against the archdiocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York. Any proposed settlement would need support from two-thirds of survivors who vote on it for it to gain approval.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- The Guardian
US Catholic school fires teacher after husband's obituary reveals his marriage to a man
A longtime music teacher at a Catholic school in the New Orleans area recently lost his job when it was revealed to an evidently 'disgruntled' parent that he was another man's widower, igniting a scandal within an archdiocese that has otherwise largely been occupied with trying to reorganize its finances in federal bankruptcy court after its clergymen spent decades sexually molesting children. In an email to community members at the archdiocese-run school from which he was dismissed, Mark Richards explained that he had been fired because a parent notified officials about an obituary for his husband, who died of a heart attack in September 2023. Richards' email alluded to how his employment contract at St Francis Xavier school in Metairie, Louisiana, contained a morality clause prohibiting educators from 'contracting a marriage in violation of the rules of the Catholic church' and 'actively engaging in homosexual activity', along with other conduct that the document maintains is inconsistent with the teachings of the religion that does not recognize same-sex matrimony. He wrote that he signed the annually renewable contract and morality clause – which is required of all the archdiocese's teachers but historically has been far from universally enforced – with 'a wink and a nudge since it was no big secret that I am gay'. The St Francis Xavier community was comfortable enough with his marriage to his husband, John Messinger, that 'everyone at the school was very sympathetic and supportive' after his death. But that changed when the parent who alerted local church officials to Messinger's obituary – which listed Richards as his husband – complained. He said he was fired on 25 June as music teacher and band director at St Francis after 21 years at the school, 'and the reason for this termination is that I am a gay man'. 'I have not been in violation of the morality clause for the last two years, and no one can find any incident of my acting inappropriately with anyone – let alone a student,' added Richards, who met Messinger two years before he started working at St Francis and then married him in 2014. Nonetheless, Richards said, all that his superiors would tell him was 'you're fired' after a parent – whose identity was shielded and whom the teacher presumed to be 'disgruntled' – reported discovering his being mentioned in Messinger's obituary. As the New Orleans NBC affiliate WDSU reported on Friday, Richards' email garnered him sympathy from many parents at the school which ousted him. A parent-organized petition supporting Richards, calling his firing 'unjust' and exalting him as 'a beacon of kindness and understanding in [students'] lives', had collected about 1,500 signatures, the station and the Louisiana news outlet each noted. One mother, Katheryn Lee, told WDSU: 'I would like to see the morality clause change.' 'I would like the line regarding homosexuality in the morality clause that educators sign to be removed,' Lee said. 'Your identity is not your morality. I hope we have a voice in this.' A father named Rick English told the station he believed the morality clause at the center of Richards' dismissal is 'a violation of human rights' that needed to be reviewed. 'To me, it's a social injustice at this point,' he remarked. Both and WDSU reported that school administrators sent an email to the St Francis community confirming it had not renewed Richards' employment contract while claiming, too, that he had not provided 'a fully accurate description of the employment situation'. But administrators said they could not elaborate, making a reference to unspecified legal considerations. 'This decision is final and will not be revisited,' school officials' email also said, in part. 'We strive to always make decisions that uphold the teachings of the Catholic faith that are in the best interest of our school.' Richards, meanwhile, had written to St Francis parents: 'Teaching your children has been one of the joys of my life, and I treasure the memories.' Still, as he put it to WDSU, Richards felt betrayed by those who opted to fire him. 'It's just a stab in the back,' Richards reportedly said. 'It's just time for this to stop. The rest of the free world does not think homosexuality is a big deal.' St Francis is one of numerous archdiocese of New Orleans affiliates that are being counted on to contribute to what is expected to be a nine-figure settlement resolving a bankruptcy protection case filed by archdiocesan leaders in 2020. Those officials made that chapter 11 bankruptcy filing mainly in an attempt to dispense with hundreds of clergy molestation claims dating back decades as affordably as possible. As of Sunday, the most recent settlement offer was for the archdiocese, its affiliates and its insurers to pay between $180m and $230m to about 600 abuse survivors. But attorneys representing hundreds of those survivors oppose that deal, saying it is far less than the $323m settlement approved in late 2024 in a similar case pitting about 600 clergy abuse claimants against the archdiocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island, New York. Any proposed settlement would need support from two-thirds of survivors who vote on it for it to gain approval.
