As Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signs the state’s marriage equality bill into law today, let us reflect on the important role played by Catholics in achieving it, just as New York Catholics were key to the victory there, last year.
Governor O’Malley, himself a Catholic, has publicly advocated for the bill, for the sake of the children.
“In contrast to what is happening in New Jersey, Governor O’Malley has always said he would sign the bill if passed. All children should live in loving, stable and committed homes. The governor is proud of the steps thus far by Maryland legislators to step up and protect rights equally.”
- Delegate Helen Mizeur
- Speaker Michael Busch
- Francis DeBernardo, New Ways
- Allen Rose, Dignity
- Governor Martin O’Malley
- Sister Jeannine Gramick
In the House of Delegates, speaker Delegate and Speaker Michael Busch, instrumental in securing passage, is Catholic. Catholic Delegate Heather Mizeur was a lead sponsor.
Groups like New Ways Ministry, which has headquarters in the state, and Maryland Catholics for Equality, have actively campaigned and lobbied for the bill.
When the House of Delegates held joint-committee hearings for the bill Catholics were prominent in the discussion, including New Ways Ministry’s Sister Jeannine Gramick, Co-Founder:
I speak here today on behalf of the National Coalition of American Nuns and the majority of U.S. Catholics who favor legal marriage for same-sex couples. We have changed our views about lesbian and gay people and about marriage. We have expanded our positions to include Marriage Equality, which encourages and supports committed relationships and families. Marriage equality fundamentally strengthens our Catholic values by supporting all our families. Our values are based on Catholic social justice teaching which directs us to work for laws and policies that support human dignity and that nurture the capacity of individuals and families to grow in community.
New Ways Ministry’s Francis DeBernardo, Executive Director,
Marriage equality for gay and lesbian couples is, in the end, about honoring the love and commitment shared between two people and supporting their families. That is why the majority of Catholics support marriage equality laws. Even though the Catholic hierarchy, who we respect, may not support marriage equality, we know our faith teaches that where there is love, there is God. And where there is love, there is the basis for a more healthy and more just society.
New Ways/ Bondings
and Dignity/Washington’s Allen Rose, President.
Some of our members have been in committed relationships for 15 or 20 years, and see in this legislation the opportunity to receive the same rights, benefits and recognition of their relationship that their parents, married siblings and married friends in opposite-sex relationships were easily granted when they decided to marry.
Part of our mission at Dignity/Washington is to speak truth to power by giving prophetic witness to the truth that we are all born in the image and likeness of a loving God, and that Gay men and Lesbians are a natural part of God’s plan for humanity. We preach this message to our own church’s leaders and to society at large.
New Ways/ Bondings
In the state as a whole, as elsewhere, ordinary Catholics support marriage equality, in greater proportions than others.
As Francis DeBernardo explains at Bondings/ New Ways blog, it is entirely fitting that Sr Jeannine Gramick will attend the public signing ceremony.
When Maryland’s Catholic Governor Martin O’Malley signs the state’s marriage equality bill into law on Thursday, March 1st, 2012, one of the people standing nearby him will be another Catholic who has worked tirelessly for most of her adult life to secure equality and justice for lesbian and gay people: Sister Jeannine Gramick, New Ways Ministry’s Co-Founder.
Sister Jeannine will join with many other civic and religious leaders to witness the bill’s signing in the Maryland State House in Annapolis. Attending the signing ceremony will cap months of efforts by Sister Jeannine, New Ways Ministry, and our Equally Blessed partners to help demonstrate Catholic support for the bill.
For several years, both Sister Jeannine and New Ways Ministry Executive Director Francis DeBernardo have testified on behalf of marriage equality in the state legislature. Last year New Ways Ministry, hosted an educational conference day in Baltimore to explain theologically why Catholics are so supportive of marriage equality laws. At that conference New Ways Ministry launched its publication, Marriage Equality: A Positive Catholic Approach, which has been distributed in Maryland and across the nation. (After Sister Jeannine presented Governor O’Malley a copy of the book, the next day his secretary called New Ways Ministry to order 100 more!)
via « Bondings 2.0.
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