A Roman Catholic school in Pennsylvania has fired a gay teacher because he planned to marry his partner of 12 years.

Michael Griffin explained that his sexual orientation was not a secret to administrators and faculty at Holy Ghost Preparatory School in Bensalem, where he taught French and Spanish for 12 years, but when he applied for a marriage license in New Jersey, he said that he was promptly fired.

Griffin was called into the office of Father James McCloskey, the school's president, after he notified the school's principal that he was planning to apply for a marriage license and might be late for work on Friday.

McCloskey asked if he was planning to marry a man, Griffin answered “yes,” and McCloskey responded by saying that he had no choice but to terminate his employment at the school.

“I really didn't think that it would happen,” Griffin told ABC affiliate WPVI. “At our school we talk about it's a community. Our motto is 'One heart, one mind.'”

“We applied this morning and on the same day he's fired from his job,” said Griffin's partner Vincent Giannetto. “So it kind of flipped things upside down for us.”

McCloskey said in a statement that Griffin's decision to marry “contradicts the terms of his teaching contract at our school, which required all faculty and staff to follow the teachings of the Church as a condition of their employment. In discussion with Mr. Griffin, he acknowledged that he was aware of this provision, yet he said that he intended to go ahead with the ceremony.”

Griffin stated that Holy Ghost, a private all boys Catholic high school, had “shown their true colors” and “I certainly don't want to work there again after I've seen how they treated me.”

The firing is not the first over gay nuptials at a Catholic institution. In October, a lesbian teacher from Little Rock lost her job after she married in New Mexico. A California teacher was terminated in August after he married his longtime partner. A teacher last year lost two Catholic jobs after he exchanged vows with his partner of 19 years. Also last year, a Charlotte, North Carolina church fired its openly gay music director after he married his longtime partner in New York.