The New Jersey Catholic school teacher suspended after she posted on Facebook that gay activists "want to re-engineer western civ into a slow extinction," inciting national controversy and backlash from alumni and celebrities including Susan Sarandon, is back on the job after a month, according to a published report.
A letter sent Friday to faculty and staff at Somerville's Immaculata High School from Monsignor Seamus Brennan, the pastor of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, said Patricia Jannuzzi had been reinstated and cited her "otherwise good reputation as an educator over her 30 years," according to the Daily Record.
Jannuzzi was put on administrative leave last month and asked to disable her Facebook page after the comments drew wider publicity.
The biased post was deleted shortly after word of it spread, but screenshots of it went viral.
"We need healthy families with a mother and a father for the sake of the children and humanity!!!!!" the Facebook post said. She also said the idea that gay people are protected under the 14th Amendment is "bologna."
Former "Real Housewives of New Jersey" cast member Greg Bennett joined in the public outcry, as did Sarandon, whose son is gay and once had Jannuzzi as a teacher.
Conservatives lashed out at school officials and the Diocese for distancing themselves from Jannuzzi because of the liberal Hollywood activist, according to The Daily Record.
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In his letter Friday, Brennan said "a Catholic school teacher must always communicate the faith in a way that is positive and never hurtful," the website reported. "Tone and choice of words matter and I trust Mrs. Jannuzzi's stated promise to strive always to teach in a spirit of truth and charity."
