Opinion
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April 8, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Despite the fact that the Catholic Church is one of the most high profile and vocal defenders of natural marriage, Maryland’s former governor is claiming that his support as a Catholic for homosexual “marriage” lines up with Church teaching.

“I’ve found that the passage of ‘marriage equality’ actually squares with the most important social teachings of my faith,” Democrat Martin O’Malley said, “which is to believe in the dignity of every person and to believe in our own responsibility to advance the common good.”

O’Malley was asked in an interview with the Des Moines Register how he reconciles his favor for homosexual “marriage” with being Catholic.

O’Malley left office in Maryland last year, and has been suggested as a potential 2016 Democrat presidential candidate, behind the frontrunner Hillary Clinton. His conversation with the Register would reinforce this, as candidates of both parties frequent Iowa due to its first-in-the-nation caucus.

Before outright reiterating his support for homosexual “marriage,” O’Malley said his view is rooted in his support for the dignity of all, and in the protection of children. “I believe in the dignity of every person, and I believe that while we are all free to practice our religion and to hold whatever religious beliefs we choose, I think we can all agree that every child’s home deserves to be protected equally under the law, that there is dignity in every child’s home,” he said.

Deacon Greg Kandra, who blogs at the Deacon’s Bench, responded to O’Malley by highlighting the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s document Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons.

“If it is true that all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions,” it says, “Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians.”

The CDF document clearly eliminates O’Malley’s common good contention as well.

“The Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to approval of homosexual behaviour or to legal recognition of homosexual unions,” the document states. “The common good requires that laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the primary unit of society.”

Deacon Kandra also included the portion of the document illustrating the grave consequences of support for homosexual “marriage.”

“Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity,” it says. “The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and women and for the good of society itself.”

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Under O’Malley, Maryland became the seventh U.S. state to redefine marriage in 2012 when he signed the law after a contentious battle and the first try failed in 2011. His support for the homosexual agenda prompted Church dissidents to invoke O’Malley and other dissenting Catholic politicians to bolster their pro-homosexual position.

He also signed the Fairness for All Marylanders Act in 2014, legislation requiring public facilities to permit biological males to use the women's restroom.

Further steps O’Malley took as Maryland’s governor to impose acceptance of transgenderism included creating regulations prohibiting companies that receive Medicaid funds from treating transgendered employees differently than other staff, and approving expansion of Medicaid funding to include surgical “sex change” procedures. 

When clarifying his idea of promoting the common good in the Register interview, O’Malley confirmed he would continue the legislative push for homosexual “marriage” should he hold political office in the future.

“And part of that advancement means changing laws when they are unjust, when they are not applied equally to all people,” he said.