As O’Malley becomes 5th Catholic governor to sign marriage equality into law in Md., archbishop gathers signatures to repeal it in Wash. state
I’m not Catholic. Which makes my fascination with the American arm of the Catholic Church a little strange, but it also means I can watch its contortions without fretting over its future.
That’s good, because I think the church in this country, while not in its death throes, is suffering from a rupture and a nervous condition. The church’s hold on its members has ruptured, and that’s going to make any denomination nervous.
A couple of months ago came reports that 98 percent of Catholic women have used contraceptives. Although the statistic has been criticized, American women by any measure are as likely to stick with Catholic-mandated natural family planning as the Pope is to become a Zumba instructor.
Then there’s the homosexuality issue generally, and the gay marriage issue specifically. When Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland signed marriage equality into law on March 1, he became the fifth Catholic governor to do so, in clear opposition to the will of Catholic bishops in those states.
As far as I know, none of these governors has been denied communion or excommunicated. But their trips to the confession booth must be deafening.
GETTING THE GOVERNOR’S BLESSING | Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Catholic, hands a pen to a supporter after signing the state’s Civil Marriage Protection Act on March 1. (Associated Press)
After grappling with her Catholic faith, Gov. Chris Gregoire of Washington happily signed a marriage-equality bill in February. Opponents are now gathering signatures for a referendum to axe the law. Seattlepi.com reported that the Archdiocese of Seattle sent a letter to the faithful, saying it plans to have parishes collect signatures.
I guess we can add a new Catholic sacrament to the current seven. Right up there with the Anointing of the Sick will be the Employing of the Bic.
Seattlepi.com noted that the push to kill the gay-marriage law might make lay Catholics twitchy.
For starters, the Archdiocese of Seattle has long championed civil rights. This time the Catholic hierarchy is batting for the other side.
Plus there’s the fact that the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is backing the campaign. NOM internal memos, recently revealed in litigation in Maine, advocated a strategy of pitting African-Americans and
Hispanics against gay-rights groups.
Jesus would be nauseous. And a number of Washington Catholics don’t feel so well, either.
A recent event in a Minnesota high school practically shrieked the disconnect between Catholic clergy and laity. At DeLaSalle, a Catholic high school in Minneapolis, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis held a required assembly, for seniors only, about marriage.
The kids suspected what was coming. Catholic education doesn’t make dummies.
A priest and a volunteer couple spoke, and student Matt Bliss told the Star Tribune that all went swimmingly for the first three-quarters of the marriage presentation. Then the speakers implied that adopted children and children with one parent are lesser.
Since at least four of the students present were adopted, this was not just baffling but dippy.
“When they finally got to gay marriage, [students] were really upset,” said Bliss. “You could look around the room and feel the anger. My friend who is a lesbian started crying.”
The couple compared gay love to bestiality. Several students argued with the speakers, and one girl held up a sign that said, “I love my moms.”
I’m betting the priest wished for a posse of nuns armed with two rulers apiece.
Student Lydia Hannah said the kids were suspicious when only seniors were required to attend.
“We put two and two together,” she said, referring to Minnesota’s constitutional amendment limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. “All of us will be able to vote next fall.”
Some clearly won’t vote the way the U.S. Catholic Church wants them to. Even the students at a Catholic school aren’t buying what the church is selling. The clergy better pray to the patron saint of ruptured relationships — if not lost causes
Leslie Robinson lives in Seattle. Email her at lesarobinson@gmail.com, and check out her blog at www.generalgayety.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 13, 2012.
The event in the Catholic high-school says it all – the young people are for the civil rights of gays and for gay marriage. No comment was made whether that gay marriage involved the church or not. If you ask young people across the board if gays should be allowed to marry in a secular, civil ceremony, the overwhelming majority believe they should.
This issue likely is to be resolved by attrition. Older, more conservative church goers are dying off and unless the church gets itself out of the 12th century, they are going to discover fewer and fewer people in the pews.
As people become more educated and more aware, it is much harder for the churches to control the masses by restricting their access to education. The more education they have, the more open, accepting, and tolerant people tend to be.
The church needs to change or they are looking at closing the doors in the next half-century.
The church is not a democratic institution. While I can somewhat respect tradition and the desire to stand behind your beliefs, the church is almost always late to the party. They are too slow to change, adapt. Further they sure look like hippocratic when they switch sides … social justice for those we like, but not those we don’t like. I really don’t understand why they can’t seem to be uninvolved and on-political. The bottom line is that this is about Civil Marriage. Civil Marriage should be a civil right.
Isnt this a clear violation of the IRS codes that make the church tax exempt organization ? Or is this a lobbying group trying to effect the outcome of an election? The church takes the moral high ground but has forgotten about the ORIGINAL message of Jesus Christ. “Love one another”. They have forgotten that people make up the PAYING audience. Some children are the part of same sex couples, have 2 same sex parents, are adopted, have been homeless and some are poor on top of being a teenager in high school with religion being fed down their throats. Most young people I have met, I’m 64, think for themselves and don’t necessarily swallow all the dogma.