NEW YORK,February 9, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com)- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling ordering that state to extend marriage to homosexual partners has galvanized Catholic bishops in the U.S. Sunday’s sermons in two of the most important U.S. sees focused on the threat to traditional marriage posed by the decision and by an R-rated media atmosphere.
Edward Cardinal Egan, in his sermon, took the media to task for creating a sex-saturated pop “marriage” would have a devastating effect on traditional values. “History assured us that no civilization can survive if marriage is rejected, humiliated - if marriage is set aside,” he said.
Giving the traditional Catholic teaching on the definition of marriage, Egan said, “It has to do with a man and a woman committing to one another a life-long fidelity, a life until the end”. Openly lesbian City Councillor Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) reacted by stating, “someone in his position has such an enormous power to bring people together. Instead, he focused on ripping New Yorkers apart.” Archbishop Sean O’Malley, in a similar vein spoke on Sunday of the attack on marriage as his state prepares for a fight in the legislatures to approve a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. O’Malley said that gay “marriage” would have an “enormously negative impact on our society.” The Massachusetts bishops this weekend mailed a flyer reiterating that the traditional definition of marriage is by no means reserved to the Catholic or Christian millieu, but is one that “reflects the common sense understanding of marriage that crosses every cultural border.” The statement also criticizes the “full scale campaign through the media to shame concerned citizens into silence.” The vote to approve the amendment must come by February 11 to be effective. The bishops’ statement calls on Catholics to contact the legislature and demand that the vote come in time.
Link to Massachusetts Bishops’ document http://www.rcab.org/News/statement040116.pdf More on Cardinal Egan’s sermon: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/162755p-142575c.html