The Detroit Archdiocese on Wednesday removed a lesbian music teacher, declaring her “morally unfit” to keep the job she had been doing for three decades.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Terry Gonda, 59, was told in a June 12 email: “The Archdiocese is choosing to activate its morality clause to terminate your employment.”

Gonda started working at St. John Fisher in Auburn Hills during a dark period of her life. She said that she was lost and suicidal following a breakup. The parish accepted her. In 2011, following 17 years together, Gonda married Kirsti Reeve, 51. Reeve, who is British, moved to Michigan in 2000.

“She took me to St. John's,” Reeve remembered. “The pastor gave me a huge hug and said, 'Welcome home.'”

Their relationship was “embraced by their parish family and pastor,” the outlet wrote.

Gonda called her firing “dehumanizing.”

“It's a shot to the head from headquarters,” she said. “The dehumanization of this is just not right … my heart just hurts because I have an outpouring of love for them. I love them. I believe that they believe they're doing the right thing – they're trying to protect the church.”

The Roman Catholic Church, which views gay relationships as sinful, has taken a strong stand against same-sex couples who marry.

According to New Ways Ministry, a group that advocates on behalf of LGBT Catholics, roughly 90 church workers “have lost their jobs in LGBT-related employment disputes” since 2007.

(Related: Catholic minister says he was fired over liking a gay friend's wedding post on Facebook.)