Maine’s gay-marriage vote was a national Catholic fight
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- November
- 25
Fifty Catholic dioceses contributed money to the Diocese of Portland, Maine, to aid its fight against a gay marriage law.
It worked. The law was wiped off the books by voters in a Nov. 3 referendum, 53% to 47%.
According to National Catholic Reporter and the Portland Press Herald, financial records from the state of Maine show that the 50 dioceses contributed over $550,000.
Overall, some $7 million was raised by both sides in an all-out dogfight over gay marriage.
The Portland Diocese contributed $286,000 to Stand For Marriage Maine, that group that was seeking to repeal the same-sex law. NCR writes:
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After Portland, Maine, the largest diocesan contributors were the Philadelphia archdiocese and Phoenix diocese, each giving $50,000. The sees of Newark, N.J., St. Louis, Mo., and Youngstown, Ohio, each contributed $10,000. The Diocesan Assistance Fund of Providence, R.I., gave $10,000.00.
Contributing $5,000 were the dioceses of Arlington, Va., Rockford, Ill., Crookston, Minn., and Pittsburgh, Pa. The Roman Catholic Foundation in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Inc. donated $2,500.
Contributing $2,000 were the diocese of Portland, Ore., Jefferson City, Mo., Savannah, Ga., and the archdiocese of New Orleans.
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Many more kicked in $1,000 or $500.
Portland Bishop Richard Malone sent an appeal for help during the summer to his fellow bishops across the country.
Donna Farrell, spokeswoman for the Arch of Philadelphia, told NCR why her archdiocese sent aid up to Portland: “As part of the universal church, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia responds to various requests for donations which come from outside the diocese, in order to advance the mission of the church by promoting and defending the teaching of Christ.”
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 12:44 pm by Gary Stern.
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The world of religion, we don't have to tell you, is vast. The purpose of this blog is for Stern to note, flag and comment on some of the more interesting religious developments on the scene – weighty and quirky, somber and laughable, far away and just down the road. He won't interpret Scripture, take sides in conflicts or judge anyone. But he will take advantage of the journalist's license to observe.
It is interesting that the Catholic Church is willing to spend its money on causes that should, seemingly, remain in the secular sphere. In many cases, they are the first to point out a seperation of church and state.
It would appear that such a seperation is violated when religious organizations are allowed to spend their “not-for-profit” and “charitable” funds to fight battles of this kind.
In California, it seemed to be the Mormons who were the headliners. Now in Maine, the Catholics took the lead.
What would be helpful to we readers, would be a commentary on exactly how a not-for-profit, religious organization can spend money to influence politics and voting, and where exactly does the line get drawn, before their determination as “non-profits” could be in jeopardy.
Thank you for any clarification you could provide.
Our community in St. Louis is outraged by our Archbishop Carlson sending $10,000 to Maine. We are so outraged that we are organizing a huge rally at the Cathedral Basilica St. Louis this Sunday, November 29th 11:30am to 1:30pm which also happens to be the first day of Advent. The Archbishop will be serving Mass as will be a packed Cathedral with many other Bishops.
We hope to send a clear message that the funding of hate, bigotry and homophobia into our State’s Constitutions is not only ethically and morally wrong, it is not American.
The Church seems to be calling for a line to be drawn, and we are about to push that line back.
Excellent. I will pray for the success of the efforts of your courageous group of truly faithful people of God in St. Louis.
Let my church fight for the special causes of God’s poor, the homeless, and the disenfranchised. Let no bishop makes such determinations as to withholding distribution of the Holy Eucharist which must never be used as a political weapon nor as some sort of moral determinations reserved only to our Supreme Being.
Indeed, the bishops no longer have the “keys to the deposit of the faith” because they have exchanged pursuit of the truth for blind attention to ecclesio-political detail. At one time, it seemed that the church was really on a path out of darker times and into the divinely inspired light of reality. In our day, this approach is disgracefully being replaced in favor of a paradigm that is without thought, introspection or reason.
Considering that young people increasingly are tolerant towards and support gay rights, and the older people voting against gay rights are dying off every year, you don’t need to be an actuary to know that within a decade or say, gays will have equal rights.
Why so much concern how the Catholic Church spends its money on causes it deems important but never a peep when TAX_PAYER FUNDED organizations like Planned Parenthood and ACORN do exactly the same thing (of course taking positions that thos of you who have bashed the Church agree with)? The Church takes no tax-payer money and I believe this is still America (but Obama is doing his best to CHANGE that)and can spend it’s money as it see’s fit. If you are a Catholic and don’t like what your diocese is spending its money on, then stop donating! If your not Catholic- then donate to someone else, but please stop with this faux incredulous attitude. BTW, I hope “showmenohate” brings that attitude in their monicor to the Cathedral today and shows respect for not so much the bishop, but for theb Real Presence. Gary-it would be nice to have an update on how these people behaved and see if they truly have no hate or if it’s just a slogan (I already have my suspicions)
I agree with you, Mike, that “showmenohate” would presume a respectful, albeit communicative demonstration. To know how the demonstration played out would be of interest.
Certainly however, the topic of this thread is not to bash the President of our country, and I don’t understand the meaning of the claim that he is trying to change the US from being “America” however you define it. Actually, “America” refers not only to the United States, but to all of North and South America. To define ourselves only as “America” shows just what a small world view some US citizens have.
Gary, I would still be interested in a follow-up on my initial inquiry as to how not-for-profit organizations get around spending money on political and election related campains. Thanks.
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