It’s no secret that marriage — God’s Word — is under assault in America and in many other places around the world. It almost seems as if once a tide starts like that, it’s hard to roll it back. It’s unfortunate, as well, that those who should gladly raise the banner to carry the fight are quick to despair and submit to what seems to be overwhelming “modern norms” — the “dictatorship of relativism” as a wise man (Pope Benedict XVI) put it a few years ago.
Take heart! The Church in New Jersey, Washington state and Washington, D.C. as well as Maine (all per CNA) are taking definitive action to roll back the tide and protect their states from the redefinition of marriage.
Of particular interest is Maine, where citizens there not only are trying to protect marriage preemptively, as about 30 states have done, it has to pull a California and reverse a decision that has legalized homosexual “marriage.” To undertake this task, the Diocese of Portland took up second collections last Sunday so that it could run television ads and other campaign communications to reach the electorate. It is expected that the 140 parishes of the diocese raised between $140,000 – $300,000.
In a disturbing occurrence, two former nuns protested the diocese’s involvement in front of Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. They claimed to represent the so-called group “Catholics for Marriage Equality.”
However, Fr. Louis Phillip, retorted that marriage . . .
“pre-dates government. … Since the beginning of time, marriage has been understood by people of every faith and culture to be the union of a man and a woman.”
The referendum on restoring the definition of marriage in Maine is November 3. The umbrella coalition for the pro-marriage side is Stand for Marriage Maine.
