Virginia's Catholic leaders can take comfort from recent polls showing that a majority of state voters are in sync with them in supporting a constitutional amendment to ban civil unions. What worries them is their own flock.My Comments:
A Washington Post poll conducted this month showed that a majority of Catholic voters oppose the proposed amendment, which would ban same-sex marriages. As a result, Virginia bishops are flexing their growing political muscle in an attempt to sway more Catholics on the issue and get them to voting booths.
"When Catholics are presented with our church's perspective on the nature of marriage, its relationship to the common good of society and the importance of the proposed amendment for children and families . . . they will be much more likely to support the amendment," said Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference.
The lobbying group spent about $25,000 this year on 100,000 glossy copies of a letter that Richmond Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo and Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde wrote to explain why Catholics should support the amendment.
The amendment campaign is one of DiLorenzo and Loverde's largest political efforts. They founded the conference just last year, although many states -- including Maryland -- have had Catholic lobbying groups for decades.
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A solid majority of the state's Catholic voters -- 60 percent -- said gays should "be allowed to form legally recognized civil unions," compared with 38 percent who said they shouldn't, according to a Washington Post poll conducted this month. Slightly more than half of Catholic poll respondents -- 51 percent -- said they oppose the proposed constitutional amendment, compared with 46 percent who said they support it.
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"A Washington Post poll conducted this month showed that a majority of Catholic voters oppose the proposed amendment, which would ban same-sex marriages."
Disappointing, but hardly surprising given the "leadership" most Virginia Catholics have experienced over the past 30 or so years (at least in the Richmond Diocese, prior to Bishop DiLorenzo's appointment).
UPDATE
I had to update with this little tidbit from a couple weeks back in the Daily News-Record, the newspaper serving the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, which quotes my former pastor (who used to be at St. Joseph's Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel in Columbia, VA, when I was a parishioner there):
Other Catholic churches in the area also back the state’s stand. Father Gerald A. Przywara, pastor at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Staunton, said that he will distribute duplicates of the bishops’ letter, and address the memorandum at mass.One of the reasons I love Fr. Jerry is that he always talks like that -- citing to Natural Law and/or his favorite encyclical. He always peppered his homilies with a heavy dose of such stuff.
Przywara calls the bishops’ letter important, adding that all Christians should support such action.
"The existence of God and the definition of marriage are not Catholic curiosities that we are trying to force on the rest of the world, but [rather] the dictates of reason that come from natural laws," said Przywara.
Previous Pro Ecclesia posts on this subject:
Virginia Churches Split on Same-Sex "Marriage"
Virginia Catholics Urged to Back Same-Sex "Marriage" Ban
Charlottesville Churches Square Off Over Virginia's Marriage-Protection Amendment
Virginia Bishops Endorse Postcard Campaign
I think part of the reason there is support for it is because it's confusing. No, the amendment is not, but it's being called the "Gay Marriage Amendment" in the press and such, so people think that it's an amendment in support of it. A lot of otherwise informed people think so. Then you've got politicians running around saying it's going to mess up domestic abuse cases and visitation rights, and colleges sponsoring "discussions" which are nothing but a big pile-on against the amendment. (Then, of course, you've also got dissenting priests who advertise the last kind of items while remaining silent about the amendment.)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'd be suspicious of the WaPo poll just because it's them. The bishops have been on this thing for months and months. The letter from both of them came out at least six months ago, they've got Q&A's in the bulletins, they've made little quotes available on the web for parishes to use, they've told every priest in the state to speak up on this. And none of it is a new thing. As soon as the amendment was made known, they got into action.
Please pray for us (as well as all the states with such amendments). There is a terrible spin going on against these amendments, and people are very confused by it all. Virginia's vote might be pretty close in the end.