Catholic Teacher Reinstated by School After Facebook Posts Rebuking Gay Activists' Efforts to Redefine Marriage

A New Jersey theology teacher who was suspended last month after posting comments about homosexuality on Facebook was recently reinstated by the administrators of the Catholic school where she worked.

Patricia Jannuzzi – who has been teaching theology at the Immaculata High School in Somerville, New Jersey, for 30 years – was allowed to resume her teaching job last Friday.

Jannuzzi's Facebook post drew the ire of school alumni who posted strongly worded responses, also via Facebook, triggering a controversy so intense that it prompted the school to suspend its long-time faculty member.

In her Facebook post, Jannuzzi said she opposed the legal arguments homosexual activists used to persuade the Supreme Court to redefine marriage.

"One minute they argue they [gays] are born this way and it is not a choice to get 14th amendment rights equal protection" – which was intended for "unchangeable characteristics such as race and disability," she wrote. Then, "they will argue everyone should be able to choose" to engage in the homosexual lifestyle.

That juggernaut threatened to "reengineer Western civ[ilization] into a slow extinction," Januzzi wrote.

"We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity," she concluded.

Scott Lyons, one of her former students, immediately reacted to her post, sending her a public message posted on his own Facebook page. "I found your classes and teaching during my time at IHS to be focused on love and acceptance," Lyons wrote. But now, he said he has "a husband and we have a child together."

Lyons then advised his former teacher "to be careful with your words and the messaging you are putting out there."

"[T]he words that you have been throwing out there are detrimental to the well-being and health of the youth that you inspire. I am certain that the Pope himself would take issue with your extreme point of view on homosexuality," he said.

Lyons' message became viral when his famous relative, actress Susan Sarandon, reposted his Facebook post, adding that she was "so proud of my nephew Scott."

"High school is a tough time anyway... students don't need teachers making it even more difficult," Sarandon wrote.

Greg Bennett, who appeared as a guest on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey" and is also an Immaculata alumnus, shared Sarandon and Lyons' sentiments, saying: "Vitriol like this from religious fanatics doesn't shock me much anymore, but knowing this woman has a hand in shaping the mind and hearts of students today does not sit well with me."

Jannuzzi's critics then launched a campaign for the Catholic school to silence its theology teacher.

"This kind of behavior needs to be stopped," a petition drawn up on Change.org by Tom Robinson, another Immaculata alumnus, said. "There is a line between believing in God and professing anti-homosexual sentiment to the public."

The petition attracted 400 signatures on April 7, the day it was posted. The next day the signatories grew to 1,000.

The high school quickly responded to the growing controversy, issuing an official statement that "the opinions reflected in [Jannuzzi's] posts do not in any way represent the philosophy, mission, or student experience of this high school."

Since the Catholic school's curriculum and identity are deeply "rooted in the Gospel message of Jesus Christ, the school takes this situation very seriously. As a result, we took immediate action and mandated that the teacher involved permanently deactivate her public Facebook page, which she has done," the official Immaculata High School statement said.

On April 10, the school announced that Jannuzzi "has been put on administrative leave, effective immediately." The letter, signed by church pastor Monsignor Seamus Brennan and principal Jean Kline, professed its "intolerance of discriminatory behaviors of any kind."

Jannuzzi's family protested, saying the 57-year-old educator has effectively been blackballed from her chosen profession by her critics.

"Our family is about to lose our health benefits. Our mother has recently and successfully battled breast cancer without missing a single day of teaching, except for the day of her operation," her family wrote in an online plea.

The school later decided to reinstate Jannuzzi. "Given Mrs. Jannuzzi's otherwise good reputation as an educator over her 30 years at Immaculata, Principal Jean Kline and I have made the decision to reinstate her as a teacher as of today," Brennan said.

He said the issue of Jannuzzi's anti-gay posts "was a personnel and not a theological issue."

"Tone and choice of words matter and I trust Mrs. Jannuzzi's stated promise to strive always to teach in a spirit of truth and charity," the monsignor said.

He added, "We are now and always have been united in our understanding and commitment to the teachings of the Catholic Church. By agreement with all parties involved, there will be no further comment on the issue."