A few more thoughts on the previous entry on the Massachusetts’ bishops’ capitulation to those who want to destory marriage by allowing same-sex unions the same legal standing. Have the four Massachusetts bishops read the document put out by the Vatican just this past summer? You know “Considerations Regarding Proposals To Give Legal Recognition To Unions Between Homosexual Persons,” which clearly states:
In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application. In this area, everyone can exercise the right to conscientious objection.
This is a clear contradition of the Church’s most recent and very straightforward teaching on the matter. Bishop Reilly, in the name of the three other Mass. bishops, has rejected the Church’s teaching on this issue. So what is the Vatican going to do about it?
Here are the potential consequences: The Mass. Supreme Judicial Court, which has been waiting to rule on the issue, will see no need to limit themselves to what the bishops have said and will legalize de facto same-sex marriage. House Speaker Tom Finneran, virtually the only man pushing through a proposed amendment to the state Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman, will see that his own bishops have left the field of battle and will drop the matter, forthwith. Every “Catholic in name only” politician will now be able to claim that they are not contradicting the bishops when they legalize special benefits for gay couples. Father Walter Cuenin, the VOTF ringleader, is now rehabilitated for having gone to the Legislature last year and said the same thing. At the time he wasn’t censured; now we know why. And the people in the pews will be left confused and with a false understanding of the Church’s teachings regarding homosexuality.
All this is done apparently with the complicity and agreement of Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston. Aside from settling the sex-abuse lawsuits—which amounted to gathering money and writing a check—what has he actually accomplished for the good of the archdiocese so far? the honeymoon is quickly ending, if it isn’t already over.
