An Isabella County priest who promised his parish he would better “vet” visitors after a local actor-turned-author read to children is taking heat from the public and his own congregation.
St. Joseph the Worker Parish Priest Tom Held issued an apology on social media Wednesday after he discovered that Dominic Sheahan-Stahl, an actor and the author of several children’s books under the pen name Dominic Thrasher about his family’s dogs, had recently read to pre-school children as part of “March is Reading Month.”
Held said Thrasher, who is openly gay and was invited to read to children “does not represent the values of our Catholic faith” and that he was not aware Thrasher had been invited to St. Joseph the Worker Church in Beal City.
While Held said he would “see that a new vetting policy is put in place in order to minimize anything of the sort from happening again in the future,” he also acknowledged in the letter to the congregation that to his knowledge, “the book and any related conversation was appropriate for our students.”
Held, who did not respond to an email requesting comment, said a St. Joseph the Worker School teacher was “present in the room at all times.”
In the hours after Held posted the letter on Facebook, more than 130 people, including members of the St. Joseph the Worker parish, voiced their displeasure with the message, many noting that exclusion based on sexual preference is antiquated and does not align with the teachings of Jesus Christ.
None of the 139 comments on Held’s Facebook post on the St. Joseph the Worker page were in support of the priest’s message, and many said he should be ashamed for being divisive rather than inclusive.
Some pointed out the hypocrisy of a religious institution that has seen its share of priests molesting children, then moving them from parish to parish, rather than banning them.
Others said such exclusion is why they left the Catholic church.
Many commenters defended Sheahan-Stahl as one of the kindest, loving people they’ve met, and one questioned whether the priest would question the sexual preferences of firefighters who teach children fire safety, and ban them from the school if they were gay.
Sheahan-Stahl’s sexual orientation has been in the spotlight in the past.
When he was invited to speak at his alma mater Sacred Heart Academy’s 2012 graduation, the invitation was rescinded because he is gay.
On April 27, 2012, SHA Principal Denny Starnes made a public announcement in which he placed the blame for the debacle on himself and said the final decision came from Bishop Joseph Cistone from the Saginaw Diocese.
Later that day, the bishop’s office issued a press release in which the diocese claimed to have no knowledge of the invitation extended to Sheahan-Stahl or the subsequent rescinding of the invitation to speak until that day.
