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Loading ...Maine Catholics told to oppose gay marriage
11.17.2008 4:12pm EST
(Portland, Maine) The leader of Maine’s Roman Catholics has told churchgoers across the state they have a moral duty to oppose moves to legalize same-sex marriage in the state.
Although no legislation has been introduced in the state House, LGBT groups are gathering support for gay marriage. Bills have been filed in neighboring Vermont and New Hampshire. Same-sex marriage already is legal in Massachusetts and Connecticut.The pastoral letter by Bishop Richard Malone was read at Sunday mass and called on Catholics to work to preserve the traditional sacrament of marriage.
The letter said that redefining marriage strips the institution of an essential component, “namely the ability and obligation to procreate.”
Malone’s letter was read as hundreds of gays and lesbians marched in Portland’s Monument Square to protest California voters’ rejection of same-sex marriage, and only days after a group of Maine ministers from different faiths announced their support for gay marriage.
The pastors held news conference to say they had the support of more than 120 religious leaders representing 14 different faiths from throughout Maine.
The group has formed the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry in Maine to raise awareness of the same-sex marriage issue.
Maine law defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman.
Conservative social organizations two months ago formed Marriage Alliance to advocate for a constitutional amendment to bar gay marriage.
Equality Maine, which supports same-sex marriage, said it had gathered more than 33,000 names and addresses at the polls on Election Day that it will use to fight any proposed amendment.
Earlier this year, a bid by conservatives to mount a referendum drive to wipe out all protections for LGBT citizens in Maine fizzled.
The Christian Civic League of Maine needed more than 55,000 signatures by next January to place its proposal on the statewide ballot in November 2009. But it admitted it was only able to gather about a tenth of that.
awww geez here we go again lets not screw it up this time and lets have learned something from California
I don’t get why religious folk think they have an obligation to speak out against marriage between anyone. Do they speak out as strongly against domestic abuse? Frivolous heterosexual marriage? Kids abandoned by their hetersexual parents? Geez, it just seems like Jesus would be more upset at some of the heterosexual shenanigans than with two gay people who want to love each other and make a happy and health home. It’s really hard to believe that THIS is what Jesus wants his people to stand up for. Not world peace, not an end to hunger, not an end to disease, not the lonely suffering of our elders or the cries of a hungry baby. Nope, Jesus wants you to throw your heart and soul, and some big bucks too, at making sure that lesbian couple down the street don’t make their 17 year relationship legal. Really.
Shouldn´t they be opposing pedophile priests instead?
OK then,
All the breeders that haven’t bred after 5 years of marriage get an automatic dissolution of their marriage.
Only fair!
think what this world would be like if these so called Christians, put close to the effort into starvation, peace and abuse against others as they do against homosexuals. I also agree that barren marriages should be dissolved after 5 years, since it fails the procreation test!
Civil Unions for all issued by the government for legal purposes and Marriage by the church for whatever othere reasons left to religion. They shouldn’t determine Government policy, like they do.
I’m sick of Catholicism and ashamed that I was raised in this hating church. Why aren’t the Catholic church as well as the morman cult taxed?
If “procreation is an essential component of the sacrament of marriage,” then why do ALL churches marry opposite-sex couples when the women is past menopause? What about infertile couples? Couples where the man is sterile or impotent?
I know that in the Middle Ages “spurting semen sealed the deal” and the Tokens, rags containing both the semen and the blood of the bride’s virginity were waved from the window of the bed-chamber the next morning. A chicken was kept handy if the latter was not forthcoming.
So … if a couple can’t procreate, they can’t get married in the Roman Church? Correct? That’s what the “good” bishop said.
FORMIDABLE nonsense. The Roman Church is nothing but a PAGAN FERTILITY CULT *and* paradoxically a refuge for paedophilic clergy.
Raymond H. Burgoon-Clark
happily married, but a
2nd class citizen, no thanks to
the afore-mentioned PAGAN FERTILITY CULT
Bishop Malone (rhymes with baloney) mentioned the “ability and obligation to procreate”. What unbelievable hypocrisy! The catholic church has never refused to marry a couple that couldn’t procreate! How do these assholes get away with this sort of thing? Why does anybody still listen to someone who has shown so clearly that the truth doesn’t matter one bit to him?
Fortunately, most Catholics sleep through mass.
Whatever. The Catholic Church refused to marry my parents because they had already procreated. Then they didn’t want to baptize me because I was a bastard. But, it’s okay. My Uncle slipped the priest a $20, so I’m saved from going to limbo. Perhaps this priest also just needs a $20.
No you cannot dehumanize us with your bigotry and homophobia….. as per Coretta Scott King:
Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.
If marriage is a religious institution, i.e. a sacrament in the Catholic church, then the government has no business being in the marriage business. In other words all marriages should be allowed since, according to the churches, it’s a religious matter.
If it isn’t a religious matter, but a civil matter, that would imply through the government that marriage is a contract. Legally, through the constitution, the government can not keep 2 adults from entering into a mutually agreed upon contract.
What really needs to happen is to change the Supreme Court to a more liberal leaning court, in which the case for gay and lesbian marriage should be heard. Until the Supreme Court finally weighs in, we’re still going to have an uphill battle for equality.
I have to agree with Don and i have felt this way all along until the supreme court is able and willing to hear this we will fight for every marriage we get, joe blow from next door will still be leading our lives by popular vote and the states will still be a mess like they are now on this issue
I suspect that R.C. bishops like Maine’s Malone looking for advancement have become ardent Vatican brownnosers rather than true believers!
Catholic morals. One of the ultimate oxymorons.