EVERY political or legal issue can have (and usually does) have ethical, moral, and religious overtones for somebody.

The priest's boss has shut him up and rightly so. The question of the morality of an act (defined here as "God'll getcha for that!") is not the business of the State but of the Churches. The Churches should teach their view of what is moral and immoral but not try to impose those ideas upon the State (vide, in passim "Render unto Caesar...."). If you believe that drinking coffee or having an abortion are immoral, fine, but don't try to pass laws prohibiting ME from doing such. If the beliefs of your Church are such that you must toss me, a member, out of it because of my beliefs or actions, fine -- but the parish priest is not the level to do this and never has been.