There’s a big stew going on in the Diocese of Peoria about the dismissal of a long-time Catholic school teacher and coach. The diocese has been not terrifically specific in its public statements about the reasons, citing things like inadequate enforcement of discipline and insubordination. I really don’t care about that, although perhaps I should. What I’m interested in is the fall-out, which has taken the form of protests this week, which Bishop Jenky finally commented on, saying stop the blasphemy at the protests.

It was Jenky’s first public comments since protests began Monday over the firing of Notre Dame High School dean and coach Cindy Clark.

His statement came after protesters at a Wednesday night demonstration outside St. Mary’s Cathedral adapted parts of Catholic prayers for chants in support of Clark. A few protesters also repeatedly knocked on the door and rang the doorbell at Jenky’s nearby residence

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Now here’s what I don’t understand, and perhaps journalists out there can explain this to me. In this article, the offending adapted prayer parts are not specified. Why not? I thought detail was the core of good writing.

Anyway, in case you’re interested here’s a little television news story with the content:

On Thursday night demonstrators shouted, ”Hail Mary full of grace, what’s the meaning of this disgrace?”

What is frustrating and puzzling about all of this, as was the case in the Cincinnati principal who was fired (and rehired)…is that the reasons are never spilled out. I guess there are legal reasons for this – there must be – but I still don’t get it. I remember that in the Cincinatti case, the principal gave his permission for the pastor to release the details of his objections – did that ever happen?