A teacher has sued a
Roman Catholic school, saying it fired her because she remarried without
obtaining a church annulment.
Vicki Manno and her new husband, Michael Yasenchack, filed suit against St.
Felicitas Elementary School in Euclid, its principal and the parish pastor.
Manno, divorced from her first husband for five years, remarried in June. One
month later, the pastor fired her after 11 years of teaching at the school.
She said she was fired because her previous 18-year marriage had not been
annulled by the church. An annulment is a church court declaration that the
original marriage was invalid.
Manno and her husband say they are regular churchgoers and consider the
annulment process a remnant of the Middle Ages.
The parish referred calls to the Cleveland Diocese, where a spokesman said he
did not know whether diocesan policy requires remarried teachers to obtain
annulments.