Catholic education and self-inflicted wounds

[struggle4progress]

August 2, 2011, 1:20 pm
Posted by David Gibson

... The pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in the Bronx, a parish whose 200-student grade school serving mainly black and Latino kids, two years ago hired a noxious right-wing racialist to run the school.

The principal, Frank Borzellieri, has written for white supremacist organizations, and says “diversity is a weakness” and growing black and Hispanic populations in America will lead to a “New Dark Age.” His latest book is titled “Lynched: A Conservative’s Life on a New York City School Board,” and “documents his eleven years as the only conservative and Eurocentrist on this ultra-liberal school board.” A 2004 book is titled “Don’t Take It Personally: Race, Immigration, Crime and Other Heresies,” and pictures Borzellieri with a baseball bat on his shoulder — a particularly troubling image given the history of baseball bat attacks in New York City ...

Especially troubling though, is that Mount Carmel’s pastor, Father Eric Rapaglia, knew of Borzellieri’s views, and was warned against hiring him by other Catholic educators. But Father Rapaglia told the Daily News, which reported the story on Sunday, that he didn’t “see any cause for concern” when he hired him ...

... Tuesday, the Archdiocese of New York said in a statement that Borzellieri has been dismissed because “his writings were found to be incompatible with the philosophy and practices of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, and with Catholic schools throughout the Archdiocese" ...

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=14644

[ZombieHorde]

1. Yikes. Conservatives suck. nt

[hedgehog]

2. Wonder what his parishioners think of Rev. Rapaglia?

[laconicsax]

3. "Father Eric Rapaglia, knew of Borzellieri’s views, and was warned against hiring him."

His writings can't have been too incompatible if he was hired in the first place.

[struggle4progress]

4. Borzellieri’s way out of the Catholic mainstream on immigration

[laconicsax]

5. They seem to have known that when they hired him. n/t

[struggle4progress]

6. "they" ... LOL! Kinda broadbrush thinker, ain't ya?

The local priest made the hiring decision; could be the priest's a dickhead, but also could be he's just not terribly well-informed -- it looks like he hired a guy from his parish, who had served on the school board; he got some warnings in advance and had some unspecified folk check the guy out; if the priest chose some other folk from his local parish to do the check-out, it may not have been very thorough

Anyway, they've given the guy the boot now. Perhaps you haven't noticed yet, but the Catholic hierarchy usually isn't terribly sensitive to political pressure: they tend to be pretty staunch in their stances. So if they boot the guy, saying his views are incompatible, then his views are probably incompatible

[laconicsax]

7. Got it. His racist views were unknown to those who hired him.

Thanks for clearing that up.