The following comes from a Nov. 20 story in Catholic San Francisco.
The Supreme Court’s ruling that rendered the federal Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional, and the Senate’s passage Nov. 7 of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act put the legal defense of marriage “at a critical point in this country,” said the archbishop who heads the U.S. bishops’ subcommittee on the promotion and defense of marriage.
The Supreme Court’s DOMA decision is now being used to judicially challenge marriage laws in more than a dozen states that still recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman, said Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco.
The effects of the Senate bill, Archbishop Cordileone said during a Nov. 11 presentation at the U.S. bishops’ fall general meeting in Baltimore, “go much further” than preventing employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity to the point where “[such] laws have contributed to the erosion and redefinition of marriage at the state level.”
The bishops, though, voted 203-17, with five abstentions, to extend through 2016 a “Call to Prayer for Life, Marriage and Religious Freedom,” originally intended to coincide with the Year of Faith, which began Oct. 11, 2012, and ends Nov. 24, the feast of Christ the King.
Archbishop Cordileone said the language in the DOMA ruling was “particularly disheartening, setting a troubling precedent for increasing efforts to redefine marriage.”
He added, “The legal and practical implications are significant, implicating the more than 1,100 federal statutes in which marital status is a factor for determining rights, benefits and privileges.”
According to Archbishop Cordileone, “the State Department has indicated that the U.S. government will now recognize same-sex marriages performed in foreign countries where marriage has been redefined.”
One remedy, he said, could come in the form of the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act, which would bar the federal government from discriminating against those who “act upon their religiously motivated belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage.” The bill’s scope would include protection for individuals and organizations, both nonprofit and for-profit.
Archbishop Cordileone pointed to a case in New Mexico where a unanimous state supreme court ruled that a photo studio must photograph a same-sex commitment ceremony “if they wish to remain in business.”
He noted that of the 15 states that now permit same-sex marriages, voters in only three of those states actually gave their approval for marriage definition. (Illinois became the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriages when the state House passed the Senate bill; the governor must still sign the measure into law but he has promised to do so….)
To read the entire story, click here.
We’re not only losing the Culture War, but the state is on the other side !
When a state tells a privately-owned business they cannot turn a potential customer away, we’ve lost our freedom. A business owner should be free to decide with whom they choose to do any business transaction. The state has absolutely no business deciding such private business issues.
That argument would be stronger if it couldn’t have been voiced, verbatim, by opponents of the Greensboro sit-ins.
Sorry, but I knew nothing of the Greensboro sit-ins or their opposition. I don’t use other people’s arguments. I may support them, but copying just isn’t my style. You’re thinking of Joe Biden, not me.
This is the only way. The good archbishop needs to lead his weak-kneed colleagues into a legal/media/social fray that will not be tolerated by homosexuals. Not that homosexual sexual people will merely object to the position of the Church, they want the Catholic Church changed, or shut down. But, notwithstanding their ululations, the homosexual sexual lobby can never change the Human Heart, or Natural Law. It is a shame, of course, that anyone is afflicted with homosexual sexual desire, but that is the way that it is. Even with tendency of all Americans to let people be themselves, everywhen knows that homosexual sex is wrong, not just because the Catholic Church (and the Bible) says that it is wrong, but because this offense to God is written on the Human Heart. Many liberals see no difference with attacking any opposition to homosexual sexual rights, with attacking racism or sexism. But, as virtually everyone knows, homosexual sex is a perversion and can never be correct among human beings. This country cannot “make” Catholics, not just the Church itself, but all Catholics, embrace the awfulness of moral depravity that is homosexual sex. Certainly pray for homosexual persons and seek to understand their terrible plight, but never, ever, accept what they do as acceptable, even under the banner of “tolerance” or, for clergy, being “pastoral.” Too bad that many of the biggest enemies that Archbishop Cordileone will face are within the Church. Here is where a shepherd must show that he is truly willing to lay down his very life for his flock. It is that serious.
It would really be a shame if people in Texas could no longer fire a police officer or a bank teller or a nurse for being gay. After all, if the Churches can’t discriminate, who can?
YFC, I have never heard of anyone being “fired” for being merry, lighthearted, bright or lively! Well then again, this demeanor might be deemed inappropriate for someone who works for a funeral home assisting grieving families. I am sure there could be times where this behavior would also be deemed inappropriate at certain times during the course of doing one’s duties as a nurse or police officer. Some jobs do require certain restraints in behavior.
YFC, you said, ……if the Churches can’t discriminate, who can? My answer would be you and your activist friends. You “discriminate” all the time!
Tracy hahaha good comments…..sure is the truth.
All levels of Government can !!!
Joe R, another true statement!
the Marriage and Religious Freedom Act will be of little use in the hands of our Constitutional shredding President and His radical Leftist Judges. Remember what Obama promised. “I am going to FUNDAMENTALLY TRANSFORM AMERICA!” Welcome to transformed America!
Gilbert & SullyMan Gaystapo
The insistence on using only Politically Sanitized & Misleading Euphemisms (the politics of adversarial terminology) to Avoid discussing the actual Substance of the grave issues of Gaystapo Thought Policing and totalitarian pogroms of Mandatory conformity to the PC party line…
Has characterized the mostly ineffective and often self defeating ‘opposition’ to the Radical Leftist / Gender Feminist / Homosex pogrom of MISANDRY – the Separatist / Neo-Exterminationist Hatred of Men & Boys, Masculinity and Normal Heterosexuality – including the Attack on Marriage
The ‘internal fight’ between Pro-Marriage Prop 8 supporters over who and how the Proposition was to be defended (including choice of witnesses & stipulations) was actually decided by good ole homo-anal coprophile judge ‘von-wanker’ himself, who only allowed as ‘Parties’ those who conformed to the ‘rules’ of terminology behind homo-anal etiquite’ in places like Sodom by the Sea.
In other words – the narrative was confined to be a fight between the Rigidly Narrow, Linear and Unbendingly Straight meanies, versus the light hearted and gaily happy Geeks from Lesbos, who only wanted ‘equlality’.
The Linear Meanies were confined to Defending a Word Only ‘marriage’ – using only ‘tradition & religion’ to fight off the enlightment of a new age of Abomination, with only one weak ‘witness’ – who was harassed mercilessly by the audience participants in Court.
The excluded Defendants had many Factual Arguments against pandering to such Hateful & Pathological nightmares, and Solid Witnesses and Research to back it up, so they weren’t allowed to speak.
The Age of Aquarius has yielded to the Age of Sodomy. It can only get worse unless decent people resort to outright acts of civil disobedience. When will they force churches to perform same sex weddings under threat of losing their tax exempt status? How will our valiant shepherds react to such a contingency? Will they have the courage of their convictions?
You can always trust YFC to post a snarky, wholly irrelevant comment as a response to a very serious article by one who really KNOWS whereof he speaks re S.S.A. and same-sex “marriage.” Abp. Cordileone is pointing out the grave ramifications of the attempts by the gay hierarchies of lies and distortion to redefine traditional heterosexual marriage as it’s always been known, by inanely referring to Texas business and legal practices when people in general were not cowed into being “p.c.” in their responses to homosexual deviationism. And how can anyone not from Texas confirm the veracity of what YFC posts? Once again, people were way more normal back in the day when threatened by the homo agenda. That’s the business of those who live there. For me, YFC has an agenda that he never fails to assert: the NEW gay is just as good and normal and s/be mainstreamed into America, with the same rights and perks, etc., as the heterosexual lifestyle; NOT! It’s not normal,not wholesome, just not OK to say they’re two different sides of the same coin. They’re NOT, and never will be, the active gay lifestyle is condemned by the Old and New Testaments, EVEN iSLAM REFUSES TO RECOGNIZE THEIR SO-CALLED “NORMALCY.” And gaydom does not constitute 10% of our population, it’s more like 2%! Come off it, YFC, admit you need the healing given by NARTH and COURAGE, you’ll be better off when you admit it. GOD BLESS ALL, Markrite
Here is how far back Bishops like Cordileone have taken the Church in America: For years and years, the American Catholic Bishops supported a very un-controversial bill called the Violence Against Women Act. It gives women additional education and protection in cases of domestic violence. This year, for the first time ever, the Bishops withdrew their support for the bill because for the first time it merely makes explicit what was once implicit: that sometimes the domestic violence that it seeks to eliminate is perpetrated not by male partners but by female partners. So because the Bishops are so afraid of any bill that merely acknowledges that sometimes women live with women, they withdrew support for the entire bill, leaving even straight women – probably 96-98% of those who must endure this physical and emotional torture – alone in the cold. This is cold, this is cruel. This is where Cordileone has brought the American Church.
Look at the percentage of domestic assaults involving same sex relationships, you may or may not be surprised. Compare it to the traditional Adam and Eve relationship.
Joe R, please do not let YFC divert the conversation, by responding to something that he has inserted into this thread. This article on Archbishop Cordileone, is about the federal “Defense of Marriage Act”. It was NO mistake that YFC interjected a different “act” into the conversation. In fact the “act” YFC chose, if passed, would further his own evil agenda. If that where not enough, by interjecting his chosen “act” into the mix, he used it as an opportunity to label the Bishops of America as “cold”, “cruel”. This inflammatory hate speech is designed to further discredit the Bishops from having anything to say on the Defense of Marriage Act.
YFC, Thank God for Cordileone and others like him, if you are upset by him, then I know he is doing a great job
markrite, you are so correct about YFC’s switching the subject. Since you called him out on the switch and bate, he again switches the subject from the Texas case to a different subject about a so-called “very un-controversal bill”, which by the way, if it were to be passed would greatly benefit YFC’s ultimate goal of redefining Marriage. What is really beyond the pale, however unsurprising so, after YFC paints a very emotional image of the necessity for this “very un-controversal bill”, he uses it as an opportunity to discredit Cordileone by the use of inflammatory hate speech.
So Mark,
Your “Christian” and “normal” response to homosexuality is to fire them and make sure they can’t have jobs? Let’s suppose a weak homosexual can’t or won’t curb their behavior. Is the Christian response to make sure they can’t earn a living and starve to death?
How very normal! I’m sure Christ will reward you for your kind and loving concern for fellow sinners. This is an example of a so called Catholic not living up to the Church’s doctrine about homosexuality.
Maybe homosexuals shouldn’t be allowed to purchase or rent a home? What about buying food at a grocery store? Shouldn’t we allow grocers to refuse to sell food to homos? Or doctors? Shouldn’t emergency room physicians be allowed to refuse to treat homosexual people? I’m sure Christ wants them to die on the table.
It is a shame that people are being forced out of business simply for not approving of sodomy. The sodomy loving hordes are a bunch of fascists and bigots. They are too narrow minded and authoritarian to tolerate people who find sodomy revolting. People should not be forced to approve of sodomy to be able to earn a living. These anal worshipers should keep their sodomy in their stinking bedrooms and leave the rest of us alone.
Ski Ven:
I think it’s more insidious than that. Approval of sodomy is a shibboleth, a “test case” to exclude those who oppose abortion, contraception, euthanasia and all aspects of modern hedono-liberalism. They want to do just like the Emperor Julian did before the Persians destroyed him: to reduce Christianity to a poor, uneducated and dwindling segment of society, without influence or power against their rule. No: they won’t leave us alone, and the last thing they’ll try to take from us is our children.
“the last thing they’ll try to take from us is our children”
Spot on. I have long maintained, and am more convinced than ever, that the ultimate goal of the sodomites is legal access to the children of others for raping. It is who they are. Indeed, sodomites make up only 2% of the population and yet make up 33% of child rapists. As such, they are intrinsically 16.5 times more likely to rape children than are heterosexuals.
Yes, but their war on procreation is causing that well to dry up. Understandably, the Russians are refusing to hand their children over to them. Perhaps they can try adopting Chinese children. What happens when the Chi-coms find out? If that was my children being violated, I would be in a very bellicose mood. Perhaps sodomy could lead to World War III.
And it is precisely because the well of boys is drying up that sodomites will seek to have the U.S. Supreme Court grant them “equal rights” to the children of others. I suspect that several of the homosexualist justices sitting on the Court right now are already willing to grant sodomites such “equal rights”.
Such nonsense.
I think you’re a little off here, Ski Ven; “sodomy loving hordes” is a bit too inclusive, for homos constitute roughly 2% of the population. 98% don’t buy into their noxious lifestyle. Now the peeps may be “cowed” into some kind of support role in mainstreaming homodom, but most’s hearts are not in it. They’re sheeple in many ways, but most abjure the homo “thing.” But you’re RIGHT ON i believe in the balance of your comments.
Markrite, The 2% you’re referencing (if it’s the same study mentioned here earlier), refers to sexually active men, so it doesn’t even count those too young or old, women, anyone outside the mainstream of the gender spectrum, etc. However you arrive at a number relies heavily on methodology and a lot of speculation. If the editor permits, here’s a Smithsonian post using very liberal methodology to arrive at much higher numbers. Interesting, in that it also finds higher polarization that you might expect:
https://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/10/what-percent-of-the-population-is-gay-more-than-you-think/
If this were simply 2% v. 98%, obviously there would be little contention at all, but obviously that’s not the case. If you look at major population centers and the prime movers of the culture and economy, you’re unlikely to ever encounter anti-gay sentiment… I have spent my career in tech and media in several big cities, and have encountered vocal homophobia incredibly rarely… but expressing vocal contempt would get you fired in most corporations these days too, but that’s a genie that’s not going back in the bottle.
This is the most backward piece of logic I have ever heard in my life. A company that chooses to be intolerant of gay people, who is then boycotted because of their intolerance, is claiming that they ought to be shown tolerance. Wow. Talk about convoluted logic, Ski Ven.
Perhaps, Ski Ven, the activists might act differently if, back when Christians held unquestioned control of the culture, that they didn’t allow police to brutalize gay people, ignore gay bashing as “boys will be boys” behavior, and didn’t fire gay people from jobs for many years.
That being said, I don’t think the New Mexico case is right. I wouldn’t have ruled like that court did. The real key difference is that a wedding photographer has to attend (or tangentially participate) in a ceremony that is against their religious beliefs. To me, their 1st amendment rights should prevail.
That case is very different than say a retail vendor whom I would most definitely sanction for refusing to sell groceries or household goods to someone because they were gay.
JonJ, “Perhaps….the activists might act differently if,……”. Maybe your conclusion has some merit, but I doubt it. In my opinion, something more is happening. Christianity has been opposed to fornication and unnatural sex throughout its existence, yet only now for the first time in history, do we have an emboldened move by those who endorse unnatural sex and fornication, to redefine marriage. I still stand by my assertion, that the acceptance of contraception in the marriage bed, as well as out of it, has been the catalyst toward the “redefining of marriage” movement.
You might want to see the documentary “Before Stonewall”. You would see that the routes of the gay rights movement started long before contraception was widely practiced or the pill invented.
A priest who taught scripture at seminary and holds an STL degree agrees that Sodomites and Muslims could very well be the two riders of the Pale Horse of the Apocalypse: Death and Hades (Rev. 6:7-8).
SSADLy – we are fighting With Pederasts as our allies The lost boys of Afghanistan by: JOEL BRINKLEY.
https://www.startribune.com/opinion/101505674.html
, and like the Homosex Harassment of Men at Havad (legally sealed in the settlement) by POTUS Barry (Soetoro / Marshall Davis / ObamACorn… whoever the guy really is)…
Our Military is being taught the same lesson in Tolerance that the German’s were in the 1930s – for Boy Rape as a Lifestyle Not to be Criticized – or else:
The Strange, Strange Story of Gay Fascists.
by Johann Hari.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/the-strange-strange-story_b_136697.html
Interesting….conclusion…..hadn’t thought about that one
22 bishops voted against this?? This is a big problem in the Church!!!
Peggy,
When 9 of them have joined the Planned Parenthood wagon, why should 22 who voted against this be a dilemma?
By the way, virtually all of those 9 have been speakers at the REC (Archdiocese of Lost Angels Religious anti-Education Congress)!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika!
Viva Cristo Rey!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts,
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
Kenneth, I love to read your thoughts and agree. There names should be published and then questioned why they voted as they did, Wolves in sheeps clothing in rainbow colors. Forgive me if I’m wrong.
Did any of your parishes actually do the Bishop’s program?
Liberals only call for freedom until they gain power, remember that.
We know Edward…we know all too well here in California.
Here, here Edward….
This is a war that will be won in families, not at the state or national level. First for catholics, its a fight for knowing Christ and making him be known as he wishes to be known. These high level fights are lost becouse the Church has lost its faithful.
The Bishops need to stop this high level style stuff and concentrate on creating holy and faithful people in their parishes.
The Archbishop of St. Francis is the correct person to take this fight to them, but that said, the fight should begin with the rosary in the parishes and holiness in the parishes. Create holy Families and this sort of thing will take care of itself.
The Archbishop of St. Francis is loosing this battle becouse for close to 60 years his brother Bishops have not been taking care of souls. They have been busy being Airport Diocese Bishops.
“The fight should begin with the rosary in parishes.” How true Western Schneider!
The reality that really needs to be addressed is that many clergy still support Obama and many would regurgitate similar comments that this parish rosary in defense of marriage would be a discriminatory obsession that would alienate “the community.”
One cannot fix a malignant problem that is treated as if it fails to exist. The malignant problem is unaddressed apostasy within the Church. Apostasy was the red carpet treatment that ushered Obama into the White House.
Twelve courageous and faithful bishops who defend the Fullness of Truth could help to renew the face of the earth, starting with the holy and fatherly defining of each of the priests within their jurisdiction. This is what a good father does. Yes or No! I will serve or I will not serve. Thank you or good-bye! The same should apply with professionally paid dissenters who make a duplicitous living destroying the Fullness of Truth. All under the pretending banner or being in full communion with Rome. They are legion and many are fully aware of the Truth. They reject it! With God All Things Are Possible. The Rosary is a magnificently powerful weapon in this spiritual battle.
The rosary is a great aid and spiritual weapon to stop the onslaught of error within the Church and the world. Meanwhile the apostasy that supported Obama is wreaking havoc in the world. You cannot fix a problem that you fail to identify or treat as if it does not exist. The definition of insanity or diabolical disorientation is to keep repeating the same denial and inaction and expect a different or good outcome.
Gay teen activist honored by Obama charged with sex crimes against a 14-yr-old boy
https://www.lifesitenews.com/gay-teen-activist-honored-by-obama-charged-with-sex-crimes-against-a-14-yr.html
@Catherine :
So true, when you have people who speak and think like YFC thinking they are on an express bus to heaven, despite their love for sinful lifestles, they are victims of a Clergy that refuses to teach the good news.
I’d just point out here that I do not judge the holiness or spiritual life of others here on CCD. Yet somehow, you all feel quite within your rights to condemn me in public.
Well to coin a phrase sodomites love to throw at us…. “get over it” YFC
YFC, Admonish the Sinner is one of the Spiritual Works of Mercy. You are in your right to to practice any and all of the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.
Admonishment and condemnation are not the same thing Tracy. But thanks for the lecture.
I am troubled by the title of this article “Archbishop Cordileone leads bishops against gay onslaught” when the abomination of desolation continues unabated at the MHR.
Thank you Archbishop Cordileone. You are being a true father to the Faithful.
Our good Arch-bishop is fighting an uphill battle. The Bishops of the church lost their moral authority years ago when it became public that they had been covering for Priests who were committing felonies against young people. The Arch-bishop was not a Bishop at the time, but he has to live with the damage that was done. On the second front of the battle is the fact that the tide has turned at the cultural level. It is estimated, true or false, that Prop 8 would not pass if presented today. The culture has moved on beyond the teachings of the Bishops, which are not listened to anyway. Since the wide use of the “pill” began in the 60’s sex outside of marriage, and sex in general is no longer considered a bad thing. Equal rights for everyone has become the mantra of the culture. So, heterosexual people wonder why if they can enjoy sex, why can’t same-sex couples have the same freedom. Many people may not agree with this notion, but a growing number of Americans do agree. How can the Bishops continue to fight against a whole culture that disagrees with them? He has his work cut out for him. But, like anything else that you want to change, you start at the lowest level of society, the family, and then the schools, etc. Perhaps in twenty or thirty years you can change the culture.