Former Chestnut Hill College Professor Considers Legal Action For Termination

Former Chestnut Hill College Professor Considers Legal Action

February 28, 2011 6:30 AM

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Father Jim Saint George, a former adjunct professor at Chestnut Hill College, says he’s now considering legal action against the school for not renewing his contract to teach two classes this spring.

Saint George says he was fired because he is gay.

“They felt comfortable enough to put in writing that they were firing me because I was gay,” said Saint George.

The president of Chestnut Hill College, Sister Carol Jean Vale, said in a statement: “It was with great disappointment when we learned through Saint George’s public statement of his involvement in a gay relationship with another man for the past 15 years.”

“So, this is like another frontier of bias and hate and it’s coming from a religious institution,” said Saint George.

The school says Saint George also presented himself as a traditional Catholic priest. He leads Saint Miriam’s in Blue Bell, which is not part of the Roman Catholic Church.

Saint George said the college knew that when they came to him with the teaching position in 2009.

“When I was in the initial meeting I said, ‘You don’t have to be a Roman Catholic to work?’ They said, ‘Oh, no. We have all kinds of denominations that work here.”

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Reported by Robin Rieger, CBS 3

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Former Chestnut Hill College Professor Considers Legal Action

Stephanie

Father Jim has my admiration for doing what Church fathers (and mothers!) have been exhorting us to do for centuries: be our most honest, best selves. His dismissal on these grounds makes me embarrassed to be a part of the CHC communitiy.
kiwikit

Catholics are not supposed to self-interpret the Bible; that’s to be done by
a Catholic priest. Why in the name of all that’s holy would CHC ever hire a ‘priest’ from a non-Catholic church to teach the Bible? First question should have been
‘Which is your parish?’ and if a non-Catholic parish was named, he wasn’t an appropriate candidate. I’m most disappointed in my old alma mater for the hire but am perfectly in tune with the dismissal.
Sue

As long as he is treated and given the same treatment as any Priest who breaks their vow of celibacy with another conscenting adult is no problem. , However it is a big problem if the Priest is a pedifile, then those Priest need to go to jail. Some gay Priets are a little better Priest because they know they take thier vows more seriously
Carolyn

What religous order is he from? My understanding of what it means to be a priest, is one who has taken a vow of celibacy for the religous order, which he was ordained!! If he took such a vow of celibacy, then he has broken his vows, since he has admitted to being gay!!!