The St. Louis Archdiocese contributed $10,000 to a voters’ initiative that overturned a Maine law last week legalizing gay marriage, campaign finance records show.

Only two other dioceses in the country – Phoenix and Philadelphia – contributed more ($50,000 each). The dioceses of Newark, N.J., and Youngstown, Ohio, also contributed $10,000.

In a statement Wednesday, St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said the money came from a “special needs” account tapped at his discretion. That account is funded by “private gifts.”

By 53 to 47 percent, Maine voters rejected a law that Maine’s Roman Catholic governor signed in May. The law would have made Maine the sixth state to allow same-sex partners to wed. Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont allow gay marriage now. New Hampshire will in January.

The Nov. 3 ballot measure asked voters: “Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?”

The catechism of the Roman Catholic Church calls homosexual acts “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” because they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”

The Catholic church led the charge to reject the new law. In the quarter leading up to the vote, 45 dioceses around the country contributed a total of $180,550 to the effort, according to the campaign finance records. Nearly 70 percent of the dioceses contributed $1,000 or less. Six bishops personally contributed a total of $2,700.

Two other Missouri dioceses contributed to the cause. The Diocese of Springfield-Cape Girardeau gave $500, and the Diocese of Jefferson City gave $2,000.

According to the Portland Press Herald, the two sides of the ballot issue in Maine “spent more than $7 million, with same-sex marriage supporters outspending opponents.”

It is illegal for tax-exempt religious organizations to participate in political campaigns for candidates, but they can “engage in advocating for or against issues and, to a limited extent, ballot initiatives or other legislative activities, ” according to Internal Revenue Service regulations.

It’s not unusual for Catholic dioceses to support one another when ballot issues arise that relate to church teaching. In 2006, the St. Louis Archdiocese contributed $121,000 in a failed attempt to defeat a ballot proposal now protecting all forms of embryonic stem cell research allowed under federal law. On Wednesday, archdiocesan officials said other dioceses around the country contributed to that effort.

Carlson said that in June, Portland Archbishop Richard Malone asked all U.S. bishops for financial support “for issues the church considers to be moral issues.” Carlson then approved the $10,000 donation, which was taken from the archdiocese’s “special needs fund.”

“This fund has traditionally been the archbishop’s for discretionary spending, not for formal operations, and is funded by private gifts, ” according to the archdiocese’s statement