Basic church mechanics

Some basic church mechanics:

In the Catholic church, taking orders is not the same as being ordained.  Nuns and brothers take orders, but are not ordained.

Priests are paid $10 per Mass (generally).  The priest is obligated to say one Mass a day.  The congregation is not obligated to hear Mass (which is why, pre Vatican II, the priest would say an entire Mass with his back to the congregation:  he was fulfilling his obligation, and getting paid for it.  Since the congregation was under no obligation to hear Mass, there was no reason to address it to them.)

Diocesan priests are subordinate to the bishop of the diocese.  They are assigned parishes.  The parish does not get a choice in who is sent.  If a priest should decide he no longer have a vocation, he applies to that bishop for dispensation from his vows.

Priests who are in orders (Dominican, Benedictine, Jesuit, etc) are subordinate to whoever is the head of the order (in a very few cases, the head of the order is the pope).  If they decide they no longer have a vocation, they apply to the head of their order for dispensation.  Priests who are in orders still have the obligation to say one Mass a day, and they get paid for it.  They lack the built-in venue that the diocesan priest has.

JP 2 was notorious for refusing to grant dispensation of vows to priests, which meant a lot of priests who had entered orders applied to various diocese to be accepted as diocesan priests so they could apply to the local bishop for dispensation from their vows.

Protestant congregations hire their own ministers.  Ministers sign a contract with the board of the church that has hired them.  The board is not required to renew the contract when it ends. 

Heresy tribunals still exist, and not only in the Catholic Church.

Most Protestant denominations still refuse to ordain gay ministers.

It has happened that a gay candidate remained in the closet, completed an MDiv (the professional degree required by most denominations for ordination),  passed ordination exams and was  ordained, and then came out after serving as a minister. 

The Church into which that minister was ordained brought the minister before a tribunal for knowingly violating denominational policy, and stripped the minister of ordination.

Because of the separation of Church and state, the minister has no legal recourse.