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Bishops: Civil Unions No Way – “Protecting Marriage Is More Than Preserving A Name”

BOSTON, June 24, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In Massachusetts, as has happened in nearly every province of Canada, the courts have ruled that homosexual partnerings must be legally equated with normal marriage. The Massachusetts court said that any bill that fails to call homosexual unions 'marriage' would create an “unconstitutional, inferior, and discriminatory status for same-sex couples.”

In March 2004, in an initial vote, the state legislature passed a bill to amend the state constitution to prohibit same-sex “marriage” but allow homosexual partnerings to be recognized as “civil unions,”- the legal equivalent to marriage in all but name. If this compromise amendment passes in a second vote in the House this fall it would then go to be voted on by the public at large in November 2006.

Since the first vote on the current amendment proposal, a grass-roots movement has begun to propose to change the wording to exclude the possibility of civil unions. To do this requires a petition with at least 65,825 signatures. After this, the proposal must go before the House twice and garner the support of 50 votes from the state’s 200 Representatives. If the new amendment is passed by two votes in the state legislature, it must be brought before the voters in a plebicite 2008.

The Massachusetts Conference of Catholic Bishops, which represents four dioceses, has come forward with a forceful and unambiguous statement supporting the citizens’ initiative to scrap this bill and start again.

Reiterating the Catholic teaching that homosexual partnerings can not only never be considered the equivalent of lawful marriage, but even of its civil equivalent, the bishops statement reads, “We oppose (the previous) amendment…which combines the issues of marriage and same-sex civil unions…It dictates that civil unions shall be treated as marriage in all but name. Protecting marriage is more than preserving a name.”

The proposed amendment would read, “When recognizing marriages entered after the adoption of this amendment by the people, the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions shall define marriage as only the union of one man and one woman.”

The bishops are encouraging the parishes to participate in the effort to collect the required signatures. They wrote, “We encourage all Catholics to exercise their civil right to participate in the signature drive for the new initiative petition.”

On June 16, Governor Mitt Romney said he was in support of the citizens’ initiative, abandoning his former support for what he called a “muddied” compromise.

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Catholic Group Wonders "Why the Compromise on Homosexual Civil Unions?"
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/sep/03090801.html

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