Banned from serving at church

Imagine returning from your honeymoon only to be called into your pastor's office and told you're banned from volunteering in church ministries, simply because you got married.

 

Nicholas Coppola is a member of St. Antony's Roman Catholic Church in Oceanside, New York, where he used to lead religious education classes, serve as a lector, and visit homebound parishioners. Nicholas is gay and has been out to everyone at church for years -- a number of parishioners even attended his wedding.

 

But after Nicholas got married, someone sent an ugly anonymous note to the bishop and suddenly he was banned from volunteering at church.

 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops claims they're not anti-gay. Just this week their spokeswoman wrote that "No one is carded at a Catholic Church. Shunning is not the Catholic tradition." Now Nichoas Coppola's bishop has an opportunity to prove it.