GUILDERLAND -- Town Clerk Rosemary Centi, who has served as Guilderland's marriage officer since 2001, will stop overseeing weddings on Wednesday, saying her Catholic faith prevents her from marrying same-sex couples.

Centi submitted a brief letter to Town Supervisor Ken Runion, a fellow Democrat, resigning from her appointed role, but she will remain the elected town clerk and continue to issue marriage licenses to all eligible applicants.

"This was a personal decision," said Centi of her response to the state's Marriage Equality Law, which takes effect July 24. "I would think everyone who has a personal choice should be allowed to have that personal choice without any kind of backlash."

Runion, however, said as a government official Centi should feel obligated to execute the law, no matter what her personal belief about marriage are.

"We all take oaths to follow the laws of the state and the town and the federal government," said Runion. "Same-sex marriages are permitted under the law and it's our duty to perform them."

Centi was appointed clerk in 2000, was designated a marriage officer the following year, went on to win six elections and is running unopposed in November for another two-year term.

She officiates at about four weddings a month. The town doesn't have to appoint a marriage officer, but Runion said it has proved helpful -- particularly when other officiants have canceled at the last minute. The Town Board will discuss at its August meeting if it will appoint someone else to be a marriage officer. Runion said town Justices Denise Randall and John Bailey will perform marriages in Centi's stead.

Centi is not the only government official in New York to balk at the new law. In Broome County, the town clerk of Barker announced her resignation, saying her religious beliefs would make it impossible for her to issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple.

Centi said her resignation as marriage officiant is in no way a commentary on her feelings about gay rights, noting she has friends who are gay. She said her faith teaches her that marriage is a sacrament -- a sacred rite -- between a man and a woman.

She said she thought the debate in the state Legislature would continue past this year's session, and was shocked the morning of June 25 to hear about the state Senate's historic 33-29 vote in favor of the law. While it requires that no government benefit relating to marriage should differ based on the gender of the parties involved, the statute provides an exclusion for religious entities and benevolent organizations from the requirement of performing or host marriage festivities if it goes against religious principles.

On Monday morning, Centi will preside over her final marriage ceremony at Town Hall.

"It's not an easy decision," she said. "But I think I would have been getting into a dialogue with couples who were getting married and I didn't want to get into that dialogue."

Reach Lauren Stanforth at 454-5697 or lstanforth@timesunion.com.