TAYLORS FALLS, Minnesota - Members of a rural Catholic parish in eastern Minnesota are at odds over the dismissal of three gay men from a church musical ensemble after the new pastor learned they are in same-sex marriages. The Pioneer Press reports that Bob Bernard, one of the dismissed men, said he has no plans to leave the church and that none of them wants the pastor’s decision to lead to protests against the Catholic Church. Father John Drees, who began working for the Church of St. Joseph in Taylors Falls and the Church of St. Francis Xavier in Shafer in July, dismissed Bernard, Travis Loeffler and Dominic Mitchell last month. Drees told the four church trustees that the musicians’ gay marriages are opposed to Church teachings.
