From EWTN:
Maryland governor renews push for same-sex marriage
Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Catholic, has renewed his efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in Maryland. Same-sex marriage legislation passed in the state senate last year but failed in the state house.
“More and more Marylanders … recognize that redefining marriage is not a question of civil rights,” said Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference. “Our state’s marriage statute is not an arbitrary recognition of one relationship among many possibilities. This recognition–bestowed on marriage by societies throughout human history–originates in a simple biological fact. The union of one man and one woman is the only human relationship capable of creating children and nurturing them together as father and mother.”
“The bill’s limited exemptions for religious organizations remain ambiguous and by no means cover the host of circumstances that would create a conflict between the government and faith institutions if marriage is redefined,” Russell added. “Moreover, the exemptions do nothing to address religious liberties for the average citizen.”
Last year Baltimore’s Archbishop Edwin O’Brien warned Governor O’Malley about his support for same-sex marriage, urging him to drop a cause “that so deeply conflicts with your faith, not to mention the best interests of our society.” In a reply to the archbishop, the governor said that he has “a public obligation to try to change that injustice.”
(Archbishop O’Brien has subsequently resigned as head of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, to become grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre. He remains acting administrator of the archdiocese. He will be raised to the College of Cardinals at the February consistory.)
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It makes me sad.
Man only has one obligation; that is to serve Christ Jesus with the the pure wisdom, soul, and virtue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota mente tua, et ex tota virtute tua.
It’s really not that hard; that is, unless one is hard-hearted and it follows, hard-headed.
Thou wilt not cower in the dust,
Maryland!
Thy beaming sword shall never rust,
Maryland!
Remember Carroll’s sacred trust,
Remember Howard’s warlike thrust,-
And all thy slumberers with the just,
Maryland! My Maryland!
(Charles Carroll was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence)
I live in Maryland and we are going to need prayers. Last year there were quite a few “Catholic” members of the legislature that were public in their support for the re-definition of marriage. Last year, it was only the realization of the largely African-American protestant churches in Prince George’s County and Baltimore that this WAS a direct challenge to their “Bible based/Bible believing” beliefs that mobilized enough opposition to turn this back. I pray there is enough ecumenical cooperation this year to help.
Also, for the first time last year, there was a sucessful petition drive to put a law up for referendum after it was passed by the legislature and signed into law. The consensus seems to be, if the governor is sucessful, the issue will likely come up for vote this November as a referendum.
Our Lady Help of Christians- Pray for us!
Gee, I thought liberals were against legislating morality. But that’s exactly what they’re doing here.
“Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Catholic…”
How can we get the Catholic media to agree to start referring to O’Malley and his ilk as a “nominal Catholic” or “self-proclaimed Catholic”? (“apostate Catholic” or “cafeteria Catholic” would be too much to ask!) It would be very instructive to the ignorant. And who knows, occasionally the designation may slip through when the MSM picks up a story from a Catholic news source…
It’s interesting to see the secessionist State song pulled out here and dusted off by digdigby as a rallying cry against marriage equality. It didn’t have too much success as an anthem against civil rights 150 years ago.
PostCatholic-
I’m sorry, but I’m just a member of the ‘ironic’ generation and not given to ‘rallying cries’! Carroll though a wealthy planter was anti-slavery and active in the same recolonization schemes that Lincoln was. It took America several more generations to realize that black Americans were AMERICANS and not going anywhere, thank you.
This makes me so angry. I’m in MD, too. This time around our dear catholic governor may design ssm into an appropriations bill in order to keep it from coming up for a vote by the people. Digdigby, thanks, we could use a rallying cry, for sure. There is hope among the churches of many different denominations to unite and stand against this atrocity. Mon. eve. there is a rally for the protection of true marriage in Annapolis from 6-8 p.m. Occupy Annapolis!
The second half of our state motto translates ‘manly deeds’. Manly deeds do not seem to be in evidence in Annapolis, and haven’t in some time.
The problem of catholics being OK with same sex marriage seems to be endemic. One of the ladies in our parish who is an RCIA instructor posted this on her facebook page in response to someone who was complaining about SSM, “The people on the right are NOT representative of what Jesus was all about.” Sheesh.
Why would a Catholic put his soul in danger for such a position? There has to be a subjective misunderstanding on his part of Catholic teaching, or else, he has sold out to his party. Why, oh, why do the bishops not opening excommunicate these people publicly? I think that one fact is a scandal across the United States. I could list the states where Catholic governors, senators, representatives, including the Capitol, where Catholic politicians have come out against Catholic teaching and not been disciplined. As long as this continues, there will be no change. Until there are teeth to words of condemnation, nothing will change.
“This recognition–bestowed on marriage by societies throughout human history–originates in a simple biological fact. ”
Marriage is not simply just something based on mere biological fact. It was also created to symbolically acknowledge spiritual and eternal facts, such as that God is a Trinity, God is the creator, all human life is created by Him, the role sexuality plays where three together create just as the Trinity creates, the three always being the husband, wife and God to conceive life, the two becoming one flesh compared to the relationship of the Trinity, the Bride, who is the Church to Christ, the taking of God’s flesh and blood into ourselves in the Eucharist, etc. etc. etc. there are layers and layers of meaning in that one biological fact, and in that ideal relationship expected of husband and wife that at the micro level affects the dignity and stability of the extended family, and the community, and the State, and the Country, and the entire world on a macro level.
Acceptance of the biological fact, and of the earthly sphere of marriage is acceptance of the heavenly facts, and the heavenly sphere of seeking union and relationship with God. If you do not know of earthly things, how can you know of heavenly things? By knowing the creation as it was intended we learn of the creator, just as studying the work of art tells us of the artist. Misunderstanding or foolishly rejecting the facts of life, imperils you to misunderstand and be inclined to reject God Himself in eternity, because you will stubbornly want something other than what He is and He does not change, so, away from Him you will choose to go of your own volition, rejecting the absolute source of goodness for carnal things devoid of joy, for pleasure seeking that will find no satisfaction, and will only bring about your own suffering to the degree you desired it for all eternity, your conscience having been exposed to the truth keeps damning you and you will keep struggling against it because that is what you willed and you decided that in an eternal sphere that is unchangeable, where your bad decisions are yours forever, and this is hell!
Marriage is not a product of evolutionary biology. If it were it would just be seen as a meaningless coincidence that worked its way out, and homosexuals would simply go on believing the fantasy of evolution that having sex their way will over millions of years somehow produce a biological change for homosexual relationships just as a bunch of ‘not-birds’ jumping up and down with flippers for arms will somehow laughably produce functional wings in their offspring, which is what makes the entire evolutionary fable so ridiculous, and even more ridiculous for homosexuals given how they cannot procreate, but according to the evolutionary fable the complex design of conception and transmission of life is one of its most fatal unsolvable mysteries, but they go on casually believing that somehow everything worked out… And this is the greatest most non sensible unscientific heresy the world has accepted wholesale as its dogma of origins, and it must be destroyed and confronted if you are going to make any headway in the fight against secular immorality, because its ideological roots are what underlay their legislating of immorality and rejection of Christian truth. Marriage is the way it is because it was always purposely designed by God at the beginning of creation to be what it is. It is not the by-product of millions of years of in-directed meaningless procreation of creatures eventually to a stabilizing cultural-evolutionary tool of a superstitious mankind who decided one day that’s what they’ll do, and thus the mankind of today can as a group freely reject or redefine it however they like.
All the ills of the world today can be traced back to people who found their mentality on the religious doctrine of evolution. They reject clear science to worship at its altar, and thus they are of the mindset to reject clear biological and scientific facts to continue celebrating homosexuality and abortion. We must always make sure to emphasize the spiritual facts of marriage as well, and emphasizing that it is originally an intentional creation by God for humanity to live abundantly and to prepare them for their journey from this life into eternity when they die to accept Him for who He is and thus gain heaven. The last things relate to the first things!
And the list of catholics begging to be excommunicated just grows and grows. I know that “in theory” their words and actions result in self-excommunication. But I really wish some Bishops would make that fact very public.
EXCHIEF: I completely agree! Public perception is that there is no price to be paid for thumbing one’s nose at Rome. It’s high time that the perception was dosed with reality.
I too find it mind boggling that bishops aren’t stepping up to the plate to excommunicate these people publicly. The thought of the scandal this is creating makes me feel physical discomfort to the point I have to stop thinking about it.
Put me down as echoing the last couple posts about the excommunication of these Catholic pols who defy Church teaching. It seems clear that Archbishop O’Brien has clearly educated Gov. O’Malley about the error of his belief and the Gov. has rejected the Archbishops correction. The argument that we should refrain from using such tools as excommunication or an interdict out of fear of retaliation against the Church is no longer acceptable. We are clearly in a war with secularism (and spiritual enemies) who are further marginalizing our beliefs. I was reading a history of the last time a major interdict was used, which was in Malta in 1961 against their socialist Labor Party which the Bishop felt would lead the country into communism. A common misconception perpetrated by socialists is that communism is/was bad whereas socialism is benign and not a threat at all which is not true of course, but I digress. The article was biased against the Church and faulted her for the division and hurt feelings that resulted. And while that may or may not be true that the interdict caused division it is true that 50 years later Malta remains one of if not the most Catholic country in the world, albeit with warts. It is hard to imagine our country more divided then we currently are. In the media and within this Administration we are given no quarter. Will the media villify a bishop for doing this? Of course but how can it be worse then the criticism or condemnation they currently receive? In 2009 Cardinal George spoke of his meeting with Pres. Obama and warned, “It’s hard to disagree with him because he’ll always tell you he agrees with you,” he saidPerhaps if Archbishop Dolan had heeded this warning more carefully after his meeting with the Pres. last November he wouldn’t be feeling so duped today. The other morning Msgr. Stuart Swetland made a good point that we should not forget which is that the Church was active in this land before the U.S.A. and will still be there when it no longer exists. Its time we stopped fearing our role and started asserting it.
New Jersey Gov. Christie wants to see the issue put to the voters by way of a referendum. If it succeeds, he can say he had nothing to do with its success and is not culpable. If it fails, which I suspect it will, the issue will be put to rest during his term. Proponents of same-sex marriage are outraged about the proposed referendum and in my mind this is because they are terrified it will fail. Even in some traditionally liberal voting blocs, there is nothing but repulsion for same-sex marriage.
The push for same-sex marriage has nothing to do with so-called “marriage equality”. So long as procreation is only possible between one man and one woman, the campaign is nothing more than an attempt to legitimize a behavior that remains highly disordered, no matter how many people engage in it.