Dear God, The FLBOE Is Now Beginning Its Meetings With Prayer.

If you are a frequent watcher of Florida State Board of Education (FLBOE) meetings, you might have noticed a recent change in the opening format. For years, the meetings have been called to order by the chair, who immediately asked the audience to rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. Occasionally, especially when the meetings were held at a school, there was a Color Guard presentation and/or a student performance of the National Anthem.

For the past two FLBOE meetings, Chair Ben Gibson has called the meeting to order and then asked the audience to stand for an invocation by a Catholic priest. Both priests, perhaps not coincidentally, were associated with local, voucher participating, private schools. This appears to be a new tradition for the Florida Board of Education.

On July 19, 2023, at a meeting held in conjunction with the Teacher of the Year conference at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel, in Orlando, Chair Gibson opened the meeting by asking Father Derek Saldana to give the invocation. Saldana was ordained in 2019 and was first priest to be ordained from India in the Diocese of Orlando.  Fr. Saldana is the Parochial Administrator at St Thomas Aquinas Catholic School based in Saint Cloud, Florida. According to its website, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School in Saint Cloud accepts Step Up For Students’ Family Empowerment for Educational Options, Family Empowerment for Students with Unique Abilities, “and others.”

You can watch Fr. Saldana’s invocation at the beginning of the meeting here. He asked God’s blessing on the meeting, asking that people respect each another’s views and always work for the common good,  which he said was “to build a nation that gives God glory.”

This week, on August 23, 2023, at the Collier County School Board Office in Naples, Chair Gibson again opened the meeting with an invocation from another Catholic priest, this time Father Michael Orsi. Fr. Orsi serves as Parochial Vicar at St. Agnes Parish and as Chaplain at St John Neumann Catholic High School in Naples. According to their website, St. John Neumann participates in Family Empowerment for Educational Options, Family Empowerment for Students with Unique Abilities and the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship. They state their “preferred scholarship funding organization (SFO) is Step Up for Students.”

Fr. Orsi is an outspoken and politically active individual.  In 2018, he preached to his congregation about the “horrendous” sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, calling for the resignation of bishops and cardinals and “maybe the Pope has to go, too.” He called the abuse crisis a “very serious issue,” saying “There has been nothing so tragic since the Protestant Reformation.” He believed the crisis was caused by “tolerance of, and therefore the proliferation of, sexually active homosexuals in the priesthood,” revealing he believed “40% of bishops are themselves homosexuals.”

In 2021, Fr. Orsi again made headlines when he preached that President Biden “is not a devout Catholic” and  “Any bishop or cardinal or priest who tries to buy into that lie, who gives truth to that lie, is a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.”

In his 8/23/23 invocation (watch it here), Fr. Orsi encouraged the board to “do what is right” for God’s children and “never let politics distort” God’s laws:

“Let us respect the rights of parents and legitimate authority, promote loyalty to our nation and cherish every human being that enters our school doors. May we teach our students and teachers to live the words of the profit Micah, to do what is right, love justice and walk humbly with your God. May we recall these words whenever we gather as a board.”

Ben Gibson, who served as deputy general counsel and assistant general counsel to former Gov. Rick Scott, was appointed to the FLBOE by Gov. Scott in 2017. In 2020, he was recognized in INFLUENCE magazine as one of Florida’s 100 most influential people in Florida politics where he was described as the “go-to advisor for the GOP.” He was reappointed by Gov. DeSantis in 2021 and served as Vice Chair under Tom Grady, who termed out on December 31, 2022 (but strangely continued to serve as chair through March 2023). Gibson was elected Chair of the FLBOE during their 4/19/23 meeting. During his first full meeting as chair, on 5/24/23 in Miami, there was no invocation given. Also interesting is the lack of mention of an invocation on either the 7/19/23 or  the 8/23/23 agendas.

So I have questions:

1. Is the new addition of religious prayer at the beginning of State Board of Education meetings going to become a recurring event?
2. Should the addition of the invocation and its speaker be noticed on the agenda?
3. Should audience members be compelled by the chair to stand for an invocation?
4. What is the process for selecting the clergy or other individuals who will lead these prayers before these board meetings?
5. How will the state board ensure that religious leaders and community members of diverse faith traditions, and even minority religious beliefs, are offered opportunities to deliver these invocations?
6. Would the board consider inviting members of Pastors For Florida Children to give future invocations? Pastors for Florida Children is a non-partisan statewide group of clergy and laity advocating for fully funded public schools. They describe themselves as people of faith, who recognize the God-given potential of each child and the promise of the Florida Constitution for high-quality public schools. You can reach them at https://www.pastorsforfloridachildren.com.