Posted on 11/09/2009 1:52:40 PM PST by NYer
PORTLAND, Maine — The defeat of same-sex “marriage” at the polls in Maine Nov. 3 suggests that Portland Bishop Richard Malone’s “commonsense” message resonated with the state’s relatively secular voters.
Now, advocates for traditional marriage are expected to advance this argument in future marriage battles, from Washington, D.C., to Washington state.
Earlier this fall, Maine emerged as a key political battleground on same-sex “marriage.” Bishop Malone was the most visible spokesman for a public campaign that underscored the dire social consequences of redefining marriage. Now, at the conclusion of his hard-fought campaign, however, Bishop Malone is far from complacent; not only did he choose to absent himself from the election night victory celebration, he is now starkly aware of the great catechetical challenge that faces every Catholic ordinary in the country.
“This has been brutal, yet I experienced the great grace of my vocation as a bishop,” he said.
The most difficult moments of the campaign came when he confronted “a terrible onslaught by dissenting Catholics who twice put a statement in local papers challenging my leadership.”
Just a year ago, the passage of California Proposition 8 marked the culmination of a winning political strategy designed to heighten awareness about the negative impact of same-sex “marriage” on children and the exercise of religious freedom. Mormon and Catholic leaders led a statewide campaign that drew strong backing from Hispanic and black voters, but also stirred support from nonbelievers.
In Maine, after the state’s legislature legalized same-sex “marriage” earlier this year, opponents of the practice initiated a petition campaign that obtained double the 55,087 signatures required to bring the issue to a vote in this year’s off-year election.
While same-sex “marriage” is legal in five states, when the issue has been put to a popular vote, it has failed to win approval. Thirty states have passed constitutional amendments upholding traditional marriage.
Testifying before the state’s legislature in August, Bishop Malone described same-sex “marriage” as “a dangerous sociological experiment that I believe will have negative consequences for society as a whole.”
“Children will be taught in schools that same-sex ‘marriage’ and traditional marriage are simply different expressions of the same thing, and that the logical and consistent understanding that marriage and reproduction are intrinsically linked is no longer valid. These are profound changes that will reverberate throughout society with tragic consequences,” he continued.
Bishop Malone’s statement reflected the tough Christian realism that permeates Catholic moral and social doctrine. But his public stance also repeated the central theme of the California Yes on Prop 8 campaign.
Indeed, when Marc Mutty, director of the Portland Diocese’s office of public affairs, took a leave of absence to head Stand for Marriage Maine, the political action committee leading the repeal effort, he hired Sacramento-based political consultants Schubert Flint Public Affairs, which had directed the Yes on Prop 8 campaign.
Catholic Vote Key
Stand for Marriage drew strong support from Maine evangelicals and established a tight collaboration with the New Jersey-based National Organization for Marriage, which poured $1.8 million into the repeal effort.
“We will probably be outspent two to one, but Bishop Malone has fought hard and deserves credit for his great determination,” reported Maggie Gallagher, a marriage expert and author who founded the National Organization for Marriage after Massachusetts began allowing same-sex “marriage” in 2007.
Catholics constitute less than 20% of Maine’s population, but Gallagher contends “the Catholic vote remained key, and gay ‘marriage’ advocates understand that. In Maine, they ran ads featuring Catholics who question the teaching authority of the bishops.”
Brian Souchet, Stand for Marriage Maine’s parish-outreach coordinator, participated in public debates that showcase both the importance of natural-law arguments for secular voters but also expose the poor formation of many Catholic voters who attack the Church’s stance.
“We say that kids need moms and dads. We speak about practicalities. The opposition argues that marriage is just a benefits package,” said Souchet. “But the debates reveal the Church divided: We have so much work to do.”
Orchestrating a rapid-response strategy that defended Bishop Malone’s teaching authority and emphasized the moral responsibility of Catholics to resist same-sex “marriage,” Stand for Marriage also consistently repeated its most effective argument: A redefinition of marriage could require public schools to present same-sex unions and traditional marriage as morally equivalent.
Maine’s attorney general publicly challenged that prediction, contending that legalized same-sex “marriage” would have limited impact in the classroom. But days before the election, the bishop’s warning was lent additional credence after a public school guidance counselor — quoted in a campaign ad that warned of homosexual “marriage” being pushed on children — was the target of a formal complaint, by a school employee, seeking to revoke his professional license.
Fending Off Harassment
Stand for Marriage won that round, but it lost another campaign skirmish: when a Maine judge rejected its federal lawsuit designed to block the public disclosure of its donor base, a legal requirement in Maine.
In California, homosexual activists publicly targeted a handful of Yes on Prop 8 donors, leading some to resign from their jobs. Stand for Marriage Maine worried that a similar pattern of harassment could have a chilling effect on its fundraising effort. Traditional marriage advocates in Washington state raised similar concerns and successfully blocked the disclosure of petition signers as a potential threat to First Amendment rights. That legal victory is expected to have a ripple effect in future same-sex “marriage” battles.
In a departure from the Prop 8 campaign playbook, religious freedom issues received less attention in Maine, an implicit acknowledgement of the state’s relatively secular culture. However, in the District of Columbia, where a same-sex “marriage” victory is already a foregone conclusion, a robust religious exemption has already emerged as a key concern of Archbishop Donald Wuerl.
“We will have to wait to see what unfolds, but any legislation that doesn’t recognize religious freedom and the right of conscience is profoundly flawed,” said Archbishop Wuerl, who has joined forces with local religious groups to raise concerns about the social fallout of legal same-sex “marriage.”
The bill in question, strongly supported by the majority of District of Columbia City Council members, will come up for a final vote in December. Mayor Adrian Fenty has vowed to sign the bill, which will then go to Congress. There, it is likely to receive the necessary backing from a sympathetic Democratic majority.
In the meantime, Archbishop Wuerl, like Bishop Malone, is working hard to strengthen archdiocesan catechetical programs designed to reach the young, and he welcomes the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ upcoming pastoral letter on marriage as an especially timely statement.
“The polling suggests that people see same-sex ‘marriage’ as a civil-rights issue, not a faith issue,” concluded Archbishop Wuerl. “In the archdiocese, we are trying to speak with as much clarity as possible to this young secular group precisely about marriage and how it undergirds the whole social structure.”
A gay marriage bill will be introduced to the NYS Assembly tomorrow.
make it STOP! let me off this train......
You can get R&R, but for us, the battle only ends when we are called out from the field by the King.
“Children will be taught in schools that same-sex ‘marriage’ and traditional marriage are simply different expressions of the same thing, and that the logical and consistent understanding that marriage and reproduction are intrinsically linked is no longer valid. These are profound changes that will reverberate throughout society with tragic consequences,” he continued. Bishop Malone’s statement reflected the tough Christian realism that permeates Catholic moral and social doctrine. But his public stance also repeated the central theme of the California Yes on Prop 8 campaign.Indeed, when Marc Mutty, director of the Portland Diocese’s office of public affairs, took a leave of absence to head Stand for Marriage Maine, the political action committee leading the repeal effort, he hired Sacramento-based political consultants Schubert Flint Public Affairs, which had directed the Yes on Prop 8 campaign.
This is a winning strategy because it is the logical strategy. The best case for the gay "marriage" is that marriage is, supposedly, an extension of consensual sex between adults, and therefore a mater of individual freedom. It is therefore the cornerstone truth of any campaign for traditional marriage: Marriage is NOT a private affair. It is a public act that has a public impact, to which the young are the most vulnerable, but everyone suffers.
If Maine can prevail, NYS can!
I need to enter a closed convent where we are not allowed to watch the news...I can live my life in seclusion and peace....except I am married, so I can’t.
No child should become a ward of state sexual indoctrination over the rights of the parents.
Heather has two mommies and Prince married a King just doesn’t cut it.
No child should become a ward of state sexual indoctrination over the rights of the parents.
Heather has two mommies and Prince married a King just doesn’t cut it.
I hear you. :)
The most peaceful place I know is our Adoration Chapel. The stillness is so wonderful. It is the Universe itself in there.
I’m very glad my life is coming to a close because I dread what comes. I’m just sorry for all those who have to continue to battle including friends and family, and of course, those FRiends who fight the good fight every day.
But, as PJII said, “Be not afraid!”
And we have our Papa Benedict to echo that.
****************
Agreed, and well said!
the Adoration Chapel....great idea. I haven’t been in awhile......there is one a about a 30 minute drive from me, in the next state. I should go, the world is so loud right now with all this healthcare news and the shootings.
what do you mean “my life is coming to a close” ??
I’m old. Not elderly. I really dispise that word!
Just plain old, getting older and very tired.
True, that I would not put it that way. My point is that the gays simply do not have a right to form homosexual "families" with children. Their private sexual acts are to remain private and not to involve third parties who cannot consent, or otherwise they are not rights, and the goverment cannot manufacture rights that do not exist in nature.
LOL......my arthritic knees understand.
I hear you!
“”The most peaceful place I know is our Adoration Chapel. The stillness is so wonderful. It is the Universe itself in there.””
Well said ,dear OP. I find myself spending more and more time at Adoration and cannot begin to tell you the many prayers that Our Blessed Lord has answered and the peace I have received through persecution of my Catholic faith at times.
I am very Blessed to have a number of Churches in upstate NY(Albany)that have Adoration often- One Church even has 24 hours 7 days a week
Some awesome quotes that explains this far better that I can
“Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration with exposition needs a great push. People ask me: ‘What will convert America and save the world?’ My answer is prayer. What we need is for every parish to come before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in holy hours of prayer.”- Mother Teresa of Calcutta
“The holy hour in our modern rat race is necessary for authentic prayer. Our world is one of speed in which intensity of movement is a substitute for lack of purpose; where noise is invoked to drown out the whisperings of conscience; where talk, talk, talk gives the impression that we are doing something when really we are not; where activity kills self-knowledge won by contemplation…
There seems to be so little in common between our involvement with the news of the world and the Stranger in whose Presence we find ourselves. The hour means giving up a golf game or a cocktail party, or a nap…
Sometimes it is hard, especially during vacation when we have nothing to do. I remember once having two hours between trains in Paris. I went to the Church of Saint Roch to make my holy hour. There are not ten days a year I can sleep in the daytime This was one. I was so tired, I sat down at 2:00p.m.—too tired to kneel—and went to sleep. I slept perfectly until 3:00p.m. I said to the Good Lord: “Did I make a holy hour?” The answer came back: “Yes! That’s the way the Apostles made their first one.” The best time to make a holy hour is in the morning, early, before the day sets traps for us. By being faithful to it, and letting nothing interfere with it, we use it as the sign and symbol of our victimhood. We are not called to great penances, and many would interfere with our duty, but the hour is our daily sacrifice in union with Christ -Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
Ping to an issue I know is important to you.
The only way off is to STOP the train through activism. The good news is that in 31 states where this legislation was passed, the voters overturned it at the polls. We Catholics need to stand united.
This statement bears repeating! Thanks for the ping and post.
One of the Democrat assemblymen is an Evangelical pastor! He will cross the aisle to vote against this. The present sentiment is that there are not enough votes to bring it to the floor, much less pass the legislation. The "catholic" governor is doing this to gain electoral votes from the gay community in next year's gubernatorial election. His present rankings are already low; this is bound to sink him.
I understand, however, Maine is extremely liberal. I have hopes for NYS.
Maine is like most liberal states, liberal enclaves in the larger cities and conservative countryside. As this referendum showed, when the countryside really votes their conscience on a cultural issue, the outcome can be quite good.
The reason Maine (or, for example, California) votes for the Democrats on economic issues is that the poor still think the dems help them.
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