New Jersey priest suspended for supporting gay groups, ‘confusing the faithful’

Some may remember this story from last year. Now, an update, from David Gibson at RNS: 

The Catholic archbishop in New Jersey has barred a gay priest from ministry because the cleric supports gay advocacy groups and has backed a Catholic high school counselor who was fired when church officials discovered the woman was in a same-sex marriage.

Fr. Warren Hall said he was notified by phone on that Newark Archbishop John Myers, an outspoken conservative who has submitted his retirement papers to Pope Francis, says Hall’s actions are “confusing the faithful.”

As a result, Hall will no longer be able to celebrate Mass in public, present himself as a priest or work in the New Jersey parishes where he has been ministering.

There’s more. Read on. 

NJ.com, meantime, has additional details:

Last year, Hall was fired from his post as director of Seton Hall campus ministry because of a pro-LGBT Facebook post he made.

After the Seton Hall firing, Hall came out as gay.

“I have to be myself. I can’t worry what other people think,” Hall told the LGBT magazine, OutSports.com.

The Newark archdiocese gave conflicting statements on why Hall was fired,saying at first that the priest was scheduled to be reassigned, then stating Catholic priests are required to live in “chaste celibacy,” according to a New York Times report.