Mass. marriage amendment watch

Coming up this week, on May 9, the Massachusetts Legislature will meet in a Constitutional Convention to consider, among other items, allowing Massachusetts citizens to vote on a constitutional amendment to define marriage. This is the second appearance of the question before ConCon; Fifty members of two successive ConCons must approve the proposal for it to be put on the ballot and it did receive those votes last January.

Now the homosexual activists and their political allies—sadly including many Catholic legislators—are trying every underhanded trick to avoid the expected result and deny the democratic process. They make baseless claims that signatures on the ballot petition were fraudulently obtained even though the signatures have been certified. They also plan on using the Democrat National Committee to put pressure on pro-vote legislators to avoid having this amendment be on the ballot in November 2008, thus making the Democrats’ general pro-gay stance a national issue during a presidential and congressional election year.

Unfortunately, the first of the tricks will be the new Senate president Therese Murray’s decision to immediately adjourn the ConCon until July. She says that she only wants to delay the process until after the Legislature has finished fleecing the taxpayers of every dime the state budget, but you can be sure that part of the motivation is moving this to the summer when voters will be on vacation and with matters of messy politics far from their minds.

Meanwhile, the state’s bishops have issued a public letter to each individual legislator:

We, the Roman Catholic Bishops in Massachusetts with nearly 3 million parishioners in communities all across the Commonwealth, urge you to vote at the Constitutional Convention, scheduled to be called to order on May 9th, to move the Marriage Amendment to the November 2008 state-wide ballot.

As Bishops, we reiterate our position that we do not seek the translation of our religious convictions into public policy. Rather we speak based on universally accessible moral reasoning in order to promote the common good. We believe that society has a moral responsibility to foster the good of families, since the good of the family is closely linked to the institution of marriage as it has been recognized from time immemorial.

The proponents of the Marriage Amendment have followed the process afforded them by the Massachusetts Constitution. A record number of registered voters signed petitions asking to put the amendment on the 2008 ballot. A recent Suffolk University poll concluded that nearly two-thirds of the Commonwealth’s registered voters want to exercise their constitutional right to vote on the Marriage Amendment.

We ask you to listen to the people. We ask you not to deny the right of our citizens to vote in this democracy. We ask you to let the people express their views on the future of marriage in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Please vote to move the Marriage Amendment forward for the voter’s consideration at the 2008 ballot.

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