NEW YORK (CNA) — New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan is concerned that state senators might “reinvent the very definition” of marriage — society’s basic institution — as five more lawmakers pledged to support a same-sex “marriage” bill.
“Not every desire, urge, want or chic cause is automatically a ‘right,’” the archbishop explained in his June 14 blog post titled “The True Meaning of Marriage.” True freedom, he said, is not “the license to do whatever we want, but the liberty to do what we ought.”
Later that day, Gov. Andrew Cuomo presented the “Marriage Equality Act” to the state Legislature after a key Republican senator voiced support for it. Four Democrats who previously voted against same-sex “marriage” said on June 13 that they would support the bill.
Cuomo’s administration is reportedly pursuing a strategy of gradually pressuring lawmakers to give their support.
“We’re in a very precarious situation,” New York Catholic Conference director Dennis Poust told CNA on June 15. According to a New York Times tally, the law needs only one more committed vote to ensure its passage.
“We are doing everything we can to convince the remaining 31 senators who have not said that they are going to vote ‘Yes’ that this bill is a terrible mistake, and we have not given up,” Poust explained. “There is still hope, although, certainly, it is hanging by a thread.”
If the bill does pass, “there is very little that can be done,” he said, because New York does not have a system of initiatives and referendums like California and some other states do.
New York’s Legislature rejected a previous proposal to redefine marriage in 2009, by a vote of 38-24.
Archbishop Dolan warned that the proposal would exert government control over an institution more fundamental than the state itself — a prospect that he compared to the communist regimes of China and North Korea.
“In those countries, government presumes daily to ‘redefine’ rights, relationships, values and natural law,” he observed. “There, communiqués from the government can dictate the size of families, who lives and who dies, and what the very definition of ‘family’ and ‘marriage’ means.”
The bill under consideration in New York specifies that no religious institutions will be forced to honor or facilitate homosexual “weddings.” However, it will eliminate all gender-specific language regarding the rights and responsibilities of individuals and couples.
Archbishop Dolan also responded in his blog post to those who say the Church discriminates against homosexuals. He pointed out that the Church seeks, rather, to maintain the truth about human nature, sexuality and the family.
“This is not about denying rights,” he said. “It is about upholding a truth about the human condition. Marriage is not simply a mechanism for delivering benefits. It is the union of a man and a woman in a loving, permanent, life-giving union to procreate children.”
“Please don’t vote to change that. If you do, you are claiming the power to change what is not into what is, simply because you say so. This is false, it is wrong, and it defies logic and common sense.”
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The Govt. has NO RIGHT to alter Catholic beliefs about marriage. It is so ubsurd what these homosexuals want. Poeple say keep the church or God out the bedroom, well, guess what? GOD created you, God gave poeple the capability to have sex, so live by his rules! That is what is needed to be known by poeple who feel marriage between two of the same sex is a “right”—It’s not right and should not be a right!
If I was Archbishop Dolan I would have began a Rosary Crusade, not today but yesterday! Mary is the only one who can fight Satan, and the Rosary is powerful.
I hope he is encouraging all of the Catholics in NYC and around the state to do this, and I encourage anyone who is reading this article to do the same.
So does N.Y., your state may be next!
This law would not affect the Catholic church in any way—it only affects the rights of New Yorkers under the law. Catholic priests don’t have to marry gays, and don’t have to assimilate on anything. This stance does however point out our ignorance of the history of marriage—the church didn’t even start marrying people in a standardized way or decide to make it a “sacrament” until the 12th century. Did marriages just not happen before then? Obviously they did, but they were seen as exchanges of property—you know, like daughters for cattle. The good old way. Same-sex unions were carried on in premodern Europe far into the spread of Christianity and throughout the middle ages, just like pagan marriage ceremonies were adapted for the church to use, along with holidays and festivals to make converting easier for the great unwashed. Pretending that marriage has “always” been between a man and a woman is a historical fallacy. In this country, many Native American tribes were marrying people of the same sex for centuries before white people showed up. They viewed sexuality as a fluid, multifaceted part of the human experience, not something that was either “right” or “wrong,” or that should be forcefully changed if not easily boxed into a familiar category. The real “tradition” of marriage in this country is very different from what keeps being promoted by the Catholic church.
Actually Teddy, you personally believe we were created by God and we were given the capability to have sex by Him. Your beliefs are your own. If you wish to live by them, then please do so. We have freedom of religion in this country, so others can do as they please as well. I see that you are concerned about gay men having sex. This law is about marriage, not sex. Sex is going to continue to happen regardless of whether or not this bill passes. As a Catholic, would you prefer this sex to happen outside of marriage or within one? Why not give everyone the tools they need to foster a loving, committed relationship?
I would like you Dusty and Addy to answer why you need marriage? Cant you just be in a “relationship” or “civil union”? Plenty of heterosexuals “live together” without marriage after all, even your so called esteemed governor.
You don’t mention if you are Catholic, but if you are check out the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Marriage is all about ‘FAMILY’—two parents of opposite sex raising children. No, I’m sure priests won’t be forced to marry gays, but I bet the adoption agencies will be forced to let them adopt children, and thats where we draw the line. Also, businesses will be forced, if this is state law, to cater to same sex weddings as well others that provide halls for rent and other wedding functions.
You see, it involves that little or big thing called conscience. And in your hearts you should know there is nothing wrong about being gay, but there is something just a little unnatural in having relations with the same sex, and then wanting it to condoned as marriage!
Please! Don’t snivel. When the Fathers of Vatican Council II “threw open the windows of the Church” to the world, what did they think was going to result? Every Catholic was shouting, “Aggiornamento!, aggiornamento!”. 20 years after Dachau, Buchenwald, Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Church Fathers believed we had something to learn from the world. As they say in Boro Park, Brooklyn: SO LEARN ALREADY.
Certainly, Rosemary. Keep in mind that heterosexuals who live together unmarried choose to do so. Gay couples have no choice. They must live together unmarried whether they want to or not. Gays need marriage in order to gain necessary rights granted only to heterosexual couples. There are hundreds of rights afforded to married couples. Here are a few of the major ones:
Hospital visitation. Married couples have the automatic right to visit each other in the hospital and make medical decisions. Same-sex couples can be denied the right to visit a sick or injured loved one in the hospital.
Social Security benefits. Married people receive Social Security payments upon the death of a spouse. Despite paying payroll taxes, gay and lesbian partners receive no Social Security survivor benefits — resulting in an average annual income loss of $5,528 upon the death of a partner.
Immigration. Americans in bi-national relationships are not permitted to petition for their same-sex partners to immigrate. As a result, they are often forced to separate or move to another country.
Health insurance. Many public and private employers provide medical coverage to the spouses of their employees, but most employers do not provide coverage to the life partners of gay and lesbian employees. Gay and lesbian employees who do receive health coverage for their partners must pay federal income taxes on the value of the insurance.
Estate taxes. A married person automatically inherits all the property of his or her deceased spouse without paying estate taxes. A gay or lesbian taxpayer is forced to pay estate taxes on property inherited from a deceased partner.
Family leave. Married workers are legally entitled to unpaid leave from their jobs to care for an ill spouse. Gay and lesbian workers are not entitled to family leave to care for their partners.
Nursing homes. Married couples have a legal right to live together in nursing homes. The rights of elderly gay or lesbian couples are an uneven patchwork of state laws.
Home protection. Laws protect married seniors from being forced to sell their homes to pay high nursing home bills; gay and lesbian seniors have no such protection.
Pensions. After the death of a worker, most pension plans pay survivor benefits only to a legal spouse of the participant. Gay and lesbian partners are excluded from such pension benefits.
Let’s also not forget the the ability to file joint income tax returns. Every tax year, thousands of gay couples who have prosperous lives together are forced to file separately and have to check the “Single” box. It’s very demeaning when a couple in a 15-year long relationship is forced to acknowledge something so precious is not valid in the eyes of the government.
And Rosemarie, while having relations with the same sex may seem unnatural to you and many others, it’s very natural for gay people. What’s unnatural to gay people is having relations with the opposite sex. Let’s keep in mind that the people who enter into marriage do it as a celebration of love, not sex. Do infertile people avoid marriage because they can’t have children? Or course not.
As for businesses being forced to cater to same-sex weddings… If a company is doing business with the public, they must follow the law. If I denied an Asian couple the use of my wedding hall because I don’t like Asians, how would that go over? Not well. Why is it okay to discriminate against gays? Are they less human and undeserving simply because of what goes on in their private lives?
Not true. Legally, you can hire a lawyer to deal with all of this, including hospital privileges.
And never said that heterosexuals living together was moral either. They will have the same problems when one partner dies if they don’t draw something up legally.
Again, the Church DOES NOT CONDEMN homosexuality, but homosexual acts. Sorry, that will never change and all the arguments you are posing are just excuses for your lifestyle.
Also, there are other religions besides Catholic, ex. Mormons who feel the same way. If you choose to believe in unnatural relations, thats up to you. But putting this into law, where everyone else has to obey your agenda is another thing.
Like doubting St. Thomas, I am questioning the “truth about about human nature, sexuality and the family” his Excellency claims. Two good friends of mine just received their Masters degrees in mental health counseling from Catholic University in Washington, DC and it is quite apparent to me based on my discussions with them that our Catholic colleges and universities are teaching something quite different from Archbishop Dolan’s “truth.” I think any Newman Club priest on any American campus would also tell you the same thing. There is a Catholic “policy” and a “de facto” reality living side by side in our Holy Church and in the Body of Christ. We need to continue the good dialogue as we “love one another.”
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