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 Redefining Marriage: No; Expanding Benefits: Maybe |
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Story submitted by hugetim on Fri 19 Dec 2003 - 11:11 h |
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Speaking on behalf of Massachusetts bishops, Bishop Daniel P. Reilly of Worcester urged state legislators on Oct. 23 to reject bills before them that would redefine marriage or give same-sex civil unions the same legal status as marriage. At the same time, he said the bishops would be open to expanding benefits for domestic partners. Bishop Reilly testified before the Joint Committee on the Judiciary of the Massachusetts legislature.
Addressing several bills that deal with the legal status of same-sex unions and benefits for partners in those unions, Bishop Reilly said: “I ask the committee not to pass the various bills proposing to change the public institution of marriage. Marriage precedes the state and even precedes the church.... To redefine marriage itself, or to change the meaning of spouse, as the civil union bill would do, is to deny the unique public value of the spousal bond between a man and a woman.”
He said the state’s bishops can be part of a discussion about legislation concerning the eligibility of domestic partners for individual benefits, but that is an entirely different issue. “Some argue that it is unfair to offer only married couples certain socioeconomic benefits,” he said. “That is a different question from the meaning of marriage itself.”
He continued: “The civil union bill before this committee confuses the two issues, changing the meaning of spouse in order to give global access to all marital benefits to same-sex partners in a civil union. This alters the institution of marriage by expanding whom the law considers to be spouses. Let’s not mix the two issues.”
He called the question of eligibility for specific socioeconomic benefits an issue of “distributive justice” to be dealt with on its own merits. “If the goal is to look at individual benefits and determine who should be eligible beyond spouses, then we will join the discussion,” he said.
Last spring the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in a case, Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, that many believe could result in a decision changing the state’s legal definition of marriage. In early October Archbishop Sean O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., of Boston strongly criticized any effort to change the definition of marriage. “Any redefinition of marriage must be seen as an attack on the common good,” he said.
-America Magazine, Signs of the Times, 11/10/03 |
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Catholic Teaching · Justice
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Cry of the Poor |
"How can it be that even today there are still people dying of hunger? Condemned to illiteracy? Lacking the most basic medical care? Without a roof over their heads? . . .
"Christians must learn to make their act of faith in Christ by discerning His voice in the cry for help that rises from this world of poverty."
-- Pope John Paul II
Novo Millennio Ineunte, no. 50
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