Maryland Catholics Working Against Church

Every morning, we receive media alerts about Catholic Advocate. This morning a clip arrived mentioning a “Catholic advocate” who was organizing Catholics in Baltimore for Marriage. We opened the link with the hope of encouragement about Maryland Catholics working together to support the teachings of our Church that marriage is between one man and one woman. Instead we are re-directed to a Washington Blade (“America’s leading Gay news source”) article featuring Sister Jeannine Gramick and a group of entities claiming to be Catholic supporting same-sex marriage in Maryland.

According to the article written from information on the Catholics for Marriage Equality Maryland Facebook page:

Baltimore-area Catholics who support the state’s marriage equality law will meet at Goucher College, Towson, on Saturday, June 9, 1-4 p.m. to discuss ways to prevent the law from being repealed in a potential referendum in November.

Sister Jeannine Gramick, a Catholic nun, will be the main speaker for the day where Catholics will discuss how the Catholic tradition of justice supports the idea of marriage equality for same-gender couples. Sister Gramick, a Maryland resident, has been a Catholic advocate for gay and lesbian equality and justice for more than 40 years.

The event is being sponsored by the Catholics for Marriage Equality Maryland coalition, which is comprised of faithful Catholic individuals and organizations, including: Baltimore Catholic Parishioners for Marriage Equality, Dignity/Washington, New Ways Ministry, Quixote Center/Catholics Speak Out, Thomas More Project, Viva House, Women-Church-Baltimore, and WATER—Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics & Ritual.

In addition to Sister Gramick, the program will include a panel of speakers, including gay and lesbian people, family members and community leaders.

Unfortunately, Baltimore and other Maryland media outlets will report on this meeting as if these dissenting groups speak on behalf of the teachings of the Church. There will also likely be an inflation of the numbers attending. The invitation is to Maryland Catholics “who support the state’s marriage equality law.” But by supporting Maryland’s effort to redefine marriage, these “Catholics” are openly dissenting from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which clearly states marriage is defined as one man and one woman.

Here is an excerpt from the statement of the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, February 12, 2010:

“New Ways Ministry has recently criticized efforts by the Church to defend the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and has urged Catholics to support electoral initiatives to establish same-sex ‘marriage’. No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Church teaching and an authentic pastoral practice. Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination. Accordingly, I wish to make it clear that, like other groups that claim to be Catholic but deny central aspects of Church teaching, New Ways Ministry has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and that they cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States.”

When the citizens of over 30 states have voted to defend marriage, marriage has won. Faithful Catholics need to challenge those who seek to misrepresent the Magisterium and at the same time defend marriage at the state and federal level.

Visit our action center to contact Congress and encourage them to defend marriage.