Diocese of Phoenix Fires Youth Protection Leader

One of the nation's leading advocates for the victims of clergy abuse says she was fired Saturday when officials in the Diocese of Phoenix learned that she had been married outside the church.

Jenny O'Connor, who has led the diocese's Office of Child and Youth Protection since its founding in April 2003, was the key person in charge of working with victims of abuse by Catholic priests and preventing further abuse. She has been praised for her work by the executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' youth protection office and by several of the diocese's abuse victims.

O'Connor, in an interview late Monday afternoon, said she was let go for getting married in a civil ceremony that the Catholic Church does not recognize as legitimate. Catholic teaching specifies that marriages involving Catholics must be performed in the church.

Leave it a secular paper to muddy the waters. It is not Church "teaching" but the Church's displinary laws that regulate this particular aspect of the matter. Why did she not seek a dispensation from form if they wanted to be married outside the church?

The Diocese did exactly what is necessary to prevent scandal from spreading. A person in a leadership position in a diocese should not be flouting or ignoring Church law for the sake of convenience, regardless of the circumstances.

Just as those Catholics who are living in relationships outside the Sacrament of Matrimony are not permitted to engage in the various ministries of the Church, so too, should those be barred from positions of leadership in diocesan offices.

O'Connor said her husband is dying of cancer, so their wedding had to take place more quickly than a church wedding could be arranged.

"They [diocesan officials, I presume] said that has consequences. Even though I offered to have the marriage annulled, they said I was no longer a Catholic of good standing."

That's basically the crux of the matter...I find it difficult to believe that some sort of dispensation was not sought given the urgency of the situation...

Source.