Gay Minister's Reinstatement Plea Rejected by RVC Diocese

A former euchiaristic minister at St. Anthony's Church in Oceanside had his reinstatement request denied by the Diocese of Rockville Centre last week, according to various reports.

Despite 18,500 petitions supporting Nicholas Coppola's reinstatement as a volunteer in the parish, Bishop William Murphy and the Diocese of RVC rejected the plea.

News 12 Long Island reported:

The diocese rejected his reinstatement request, saying Coppola was fired because "by marrying under New York State's same-sex marriage law, he took a public position against church teachings."

"The Catholic Church recognizes that all persons share equally in the dignity of being human and are entitled to have that human dignity protected," Diocese spokeman Sean Nolan said in a statement last week. "This does not, however, justify the creation of a new definition for marriage, a term whose traditional meaning is of critical importance to the furtherance of fundamental societal interests."

According to Glaad.org, Coppola, who was openly gay with his parish when he began there four years, married his partner in October of 2012.

His involvement at the church included serving as a religious education instructor, lector, altar server, visitation minister for homebound members, as well as member of the Consolation Ministry and St. Vincent de Paul.

The problems began Coppola after returning from his honeymoon in January when an anonymous letter complaining about Coppola's homosexuality was sent to the diocese.

"Well settled Church teaching recognizes marriage to be the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, holy and loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves," Nolan said. "Regardless of civil pronouncements, this definition does not, and indeed cannot, change in the eyes of the Church because it is rooted in biological teleology and natural law."