Brooklyn Diocese fires music teacher after same-sex wedding

NEW YORK (AP) — The Brooklyn Diocese has fired a Catholic music school teacher in Queens after he married a man. It says he violated a contractual stipulation to the Catholic Church. The Daily News reported Monday that Matthew LaBanca of St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy in Astoria and Corpus Christi Church was fired Oct. 13, 2021. Diocese officials learned he had married a man in August. School and church officials say in a statement that LaBanca was fired because he violated a part of his contract that said teachers must “support and exemplify by his/her public conduct Catholic doctrine and morality.”