In New Jersey, a nominee for the state’s Superior Court happens to be a man training to become a Catholic deacon.

And that may cause a conflict, according to this South Jersey paper:

A judge in Middlesex County who is also training to become a Roman Catholic deacon eased some lawmakers’ concerns Monday but may raise the ire of the church after saying he is willing to perform civil unions in his position on the bench.

John A. Jorgensen, a municipal court judge for the past 15 years employed by South Plainfield and Woodbridge, had worried gay-rights activists because he has refused to perform civil unions, which are intended to provide same-sex couples the rights of marriage. After officiating what he estimated as hundreds of marriages, Jorgensen stopped doing weddings in January 2007, shortly after New Jersey’s civil union law was signed.

But Monday, as the Senate Judiciary Committee took up his nomination to become a Superior Court judge, Jorgensen said he is willing to perform either type of ceremony and has been available to do so since November.

“I’m fully in support of the civil union act. I think that any time we can have an expansion of the rights and equalities of individuals, it’s a very good thing,” Jorgensen said at a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

New Jersey judges are required to perform either both civil unions and opposite-sex weddings or neither. Jorgensen was in the early stages of his work to become a deacon and said he was concerned about the potential conflict between the law and church teachings.

The church said Monday that clergy must consider their faith at all times.

“The Catholic Church teaches unambiguously that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. Therefore, priests and deacons may never officiate at same-sex unions,” said the Rev. Msgr. William Benwell, vicar general of the Diocese of Metuchen, where Jorgensen is studying.

The vicar general, of course, is correct. And Judge Jorgenson has some soul-searching to do.