Suit Against Catholic Diocese By Fired Lesbian Food Bank Manager Alleges Fraud

Kansas City Star reported yesterday on a lawsuit filed by a Kansas City (MO) woman who says she was fired from her position as a pastoral associate managing a food bank for St. Francis Xavier Catholic parish after her same-sex marital relationship was mentioned in a newspaper article.  Plaintiff Colleen Simon says that priests at the parish knew of her marriage to Rev. Donna Simon, a Lutheran minister, and had no problem with it. However it is alleged that when the relationship was publicly mentioned in an article about an area of Kansas City, Bishop Robert Finn ordered her fired.  The state court lawsuit against the Diocese and Finn claims that the diocese fraudulently encouraged her to take the food bank position knowing that it had no intention of keeping its commitments to her.