2nd employee at Catholic school plans same-sex marriage; school CEO says she is welcome to stay
January 08, 2014
A part-time employee of a Seattle-area Catholic school has announced that she is planning a same-sex wedding in August – and the school’s president and CEO says that she is “welcome” to stay, according to a local media report.
In December, Mark Zmuda, the vice principal at Eastside Catholic School, was dismissed after his summer same-sex wedding became a matter of public knowledge. A local newspaper reported that the dismissal followed a conversation between Archbishop J. Peter Sartain and the school’s president and CEO, Sister Mary Tracy. The vice principal’s dismissal led 400 of the school’s students to protest.
On January 7, Stephanie Merrow, a part-time drama coach at the school, announced that she will wed another woman in the summer and said that she feared for her job.
““I’m doing this to support the kids, and what the kids are trying to do is get to the Pope and change the Church,” said Merrow, according to a KING-TV report.
The Seattle NBC station also reported that Gene Colin, the chairman of Eastside Catholic’s board, was involved in Zmuda’s dismissal and has resigned and that Sister Tracy said that Merrow “is ‘welcome’ to continue working on campus.”
“Sister Tracy also told KING 5 the board discussed ways to prevent the current controversy from happening again, indicating the school would seek counsel from the Archdiocese and research other similar circumstances around the nation,” the report added.
According to a student, Sister Tracy said that “I look forward to the day where no individual loses their job because they married a person of the same sex.”
Sister Tracy, according to the school’s website, worked for 15 years at the National Catholic Educational Association in Washington, most recently as the NCEA Director of Advancement Services.
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Further information:
- Eastside Catholic to "welcome" engaged gay freelance coach (KING 5 News)
- 2nd gay worker at Catholic school to marry (Seattle Times)
- Our team (Eastside Catholic School)
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Posted by: John J Plick -
Jan. 11, 2014 7:41 PM ET USA
It is clear to me that if the Archbishop fails to act he will have at the least passively sabotaged the Vatican's reasonable authoritarian stance towards the LCWR and at worst will have laid the foundation for a heretical American "catholic" Church,
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Posted by: stpetric -
Jan. 10, 2014 5:41 PM ET USA
This is a golden teaching opportunity for the bishop and the school board. The school's "president and CEO" needs either to get on board, or go.
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Posted by: John J Plick -
Jan. 09, 2014 4:58 PM ET USA
Everyone realizes of course, that Archbishop J. Peter Sartain is in fact the Vatican's Emissary to the LCWR?
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Posted by: -
Jan. 09, 2014 12:29 PM ET USA
May God have mercy on the souls of all those who, having been misled, propagate error as the authentic teaching of the Church. May He grant us shepherds who lead us toward truth rather than ever further away from it.
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Posted by: unum -
Jan. 08, 2014 10:26 PM ET USA
Just what is this school teaching that warrants its affiliation with the diocese and the word "Catholic" in the school's name. It sounds like either a change of CEO's or the school's affiliation is in order!
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Posted by: [email protected] -
Jan. 08, 2014 6:47 PM ET USA
Another flaky sister willing to abrogate the doctrine of the Church for a feel good reason. By allowing Merrow to stay if she does go through a same sex ceremony ( it is not a marriage.) just tells the students that the Church is wrong and anything is ok. The Bishop should be strong and say no to Merrow. Otherwise the mob will run the Church.
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
Jan. 08, 2014 4:51 PM ET USA
Notice the oblique ''appeal'' to Pope Francis. It's now time for the pope to make crystal clear -- I know he has said this, but he has not been heard -- that he cannot magically make sin virtue and that Catholic schools and hospitals should be promoting Catholic morality, not mush-headed secularist bunk. With her skewed notion of morality, Merrow should not be permitted to come close to a school yard, let alone a classroom; she is a danger to ''the kids.''
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Posted by: John J Plick -
Jan. 08, 2014 11:11 AM ET USA
I don't think that anyone is viewing this from a global perspective. How can you discipline the laity when rebellion is entrenched in the religious? Evidently, the Vatican's "friendly" approach to the LCWR didn't have much of an impact. In fact, Pope Francis replaced Cardinal Burke (staunchly conservative) with Cardinal Wuerl, who seems to have passively supported the lesbian in Gaithersburg, VA. Mistakes are being made, and sincere Catholics need to see things as they are.
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Posted by: wsw33410 -
Jan. 08, 2014 8:39 AM ET USA
Just hope and pray that Archbishop J. Peter Sartain holds the ground and sends Sister Mary Tracy for a needed reeducation ..
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Posted by: Defender -
Jan. 08, 2014 8:17 AM ET USA
So the sister is the school's president and CEO, once worked for the NCEA and has no problem with SSM. This shouldn't surprise too many, the surprise is that it has hit the press, which should be enough to question her obedience to the Magisterium. There are many in Catholic education at the university, diocesan and school levels who also ignore Church teachings and are poorly catechized and this is then conveyed to the students. Yet another generation who will become lost to secularism.
