This is the Catholic Church
On October 5, 2008, Mass had concluded at [Geoff] Farrow's church. The priest walked up to the pulpit, shuffled his papers, and read a statement.
"In directing the faithful to vote 'Yes' on Proposition 8, the California bishops are ... making a statement which has a direct, and damaging, effect on some of the people who may be sitting in the pews next you today," Farrow said. "Imagine what hearing such damaging words at Mass does to an adolescent who has just discovered that he/she is gay/lesbian? ... What would it have meant to you personally to hear from the pulpit at church that you could never date? Never fall in love, never kiss or hold hands with another person? Never be able to marry? ... How would you view your life and your future? How would you feel when you saw a car with a 'Yes on 8' bumper sticker? When you overheard someone in a public place use the word 'faggot?'
"I do not presume to tell you how to vote, but I do ask that you pray to the Creator of us all," Farrow concluded. "Personally, I am morally compelled to vote 'No' on Proposition 8. ... I know these words of truth will cost me dearly. But to withhold them would be far more costly, and I would become an accomplice to a moral evil that strips gay and lesbian people not only of their civil rights, but of their human dignity as well."
Four days later, Geoff Farrow was removed as pastor of the Newman Center. He was suspended as a priest, and his salary and benefits were stripped. He was ordered never to return to a parish he had once served, and never to publish anything on the Internet.
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