Call to Action

Fight Same-Sex Marriage in Vermont

Vermont Senate passes Same-Sex Marriage Bill - Moves to House

Contact your elected official and remind them 17 Vermont legislators lost their seats over civil unions in 2000.

 

 

The union of husband and wife is a distinct vocation and using the law to alter or to redefine marriage is an injustice to those who have embraced this state in life and negates its long history of benefit to society and the justified acknowledgment that it has received from the very beginning of history - Bishop Salvatore R. Matano, Burlington Diocese

 

Vermont Senate OKs same-sex marriage; Bishop Martano says Church has a duty to defend traditional Marriage

 

Go here to contact your legislator or

Follow this link and send one email to all 150 members of the House

By Catholic News Service

Despite a Catholic bishop's warning that decisions made too rapidly could "leave unresolved a whole series of moral, ethical and legal questions," the Vermont Senate voted overwhelmingly March 23 to allow same-sex marriages in the state.

Following the 26-4 Senate vote, the Vermont House of Representatives scheduled hearings on the legislation for March 24 and 25 and was expected to vote on the bill March 26 or 27.

At a March 18 hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bishop Salvatore R. Matano of Burlington said church opposition to the legislation was "not rooted in hatred, bigotry, a lack of compassion or understanding, or discrimination" but rather arose from a "duty to uphold and to defend the traditional definition of marriage as it has been upheld and revered over the ages."

If the legislation, called the Freedom to Marry Act, becomes law, Vermont would become the third state to allow same-sex couples to marry, after Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the first to do so without a court order.

A court decision in California briefly allowed same-sex marriages, but voters reversed the decision in a November referendum. The state's Supreme Court is to issue a decision on a challenge to the ballot initiative.

In Vermont, some 1,000 people showed up for the March 18 hearing, with 200 of them signing up to testify on the legislation. According to Sen. Richard Sears, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 115 of those who signed up said they wished to testify in favor of the bill, while 85 said they would testify against it. Only 70 people eventually testified during the three-hour hearing.

Bishop Matano said it has been the Catholic Church's "consistent teaching ... that marriage is the union of man and woman."

"It was not so long ago that this was a commonly held definition by peoples of different cultures and creeds, believers and nonbelievers," he added. "This recognition of marriage's unique, understood and appreciated purpose is why the supreme courts of Maryland, New York and Washington, to name just three, have recently rejected the notion that the definition of marriage as one man and one woman could be construed as or even constitute discrimination."

It also is why more than 30 states have voted to define marriage as the union of husband and wife, he said.

Bishop Matano expressed concern that although the legislation gives religious organizations and officials the right to refuse to perform a wedding involving people of the same sex the exception could later be revoked.

"How can one declare a right and then grant an exception to the right? Isn't this a contradiction in terms?" he asked. "Is that sacrosanct principle of separation of church and state now being removed to allow government to intrude into religious matters and even mandate that citizens, especially those in public office and civil servants, act against their consciences and creedal beliefs?"

The issue of same-sex marriage raises "serious, grave questions, which cause one to ask why this legislation is being advanced with such expediency that does not allow the population at large to grasp the magnitude of this issue," Bishop Matano said.

"Realizing the imminent need to seek resolutions to address the grave economic situation of our state and country, we still cannot allow ourselves to make rapid decisions in other matters which will have serious consequences in the future and leave unresolved a whole series of moral, ethical and legal questions," he said.

The bishop said any marriage-related legislation "has become a highly charged emotional issue which has divided families, friends, neighborhoods and communities, and even ecclesial bodies."

"The Catholic Church must be concerned for all these people, while always mindful that it serves no one if it denies the truth of her creed," he added. "For the church to be ambiguous or vague about its creed would be a grave injustice to those whom it seeks to serve in fidelity to the Gospel.

"Clarity in teaching is not meant to be harsh or threatening, but to place before us the message of Jesus, which challenges us to follow him even in the very difficult moments of our life," Bishop Matano said.