Rick Caruso, the owner of The Grove and the man who announced today that boxing legend Manny Pacquiao would be banned from the premises for his opposition to same-sex marriage, is also the funder of the USC Caruso Catholic Center, a 20,000 square foot church and center. He donated $6 million to the project.
The center has no stated position on same-sex marriage, but Catholic doctrine clearly prohibits it. Father Lawrence Seyer, the head of the Caruso Catholic Center, voted for Proposition 8 to uphold traditional marriage in California, and opposes same-sex marriage.
Seyer celebrated the initial court rulings upholding Proposition 8. “I’m glad to see that the courts maintained that definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman, and that they followed the will of voters,” he said at the time. “It’s not discrimination, it’s meant to maintain the definition of marriage,” he said.