by Peter J. Smith
Archbishop Timothy Dolan
NEW YORK, June 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The leader of New York’s Catholics told New York lawmakers that communist governments presume to redefine fundamental rights and basic social institutions like the family, and that New York would be importing that mentality by passing same-sex “marriage” legislation.
The state Senate is just one vote shy of having the necessary majority to pass a bill allowing homosexual couples to obtain marriage licenses. Two Republican Senators, Jim Alesi of Rochester, and Roy MacDonald of Saratoga announced they will back same-sex “marriage” this year, backtracking from the “no” votes they cast in 2009.
“Last time I consulted an atlas, it is clear we are living in New York, in the United States of America – not in China or North Korea,” wrote New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan.
The Catholic primate explained in an archdiocesan column published Tuesday that legislators were on a “stampede” to legalize same-sex “marriage.” He warned it was a ““perilous presumption” for the state to reinvent a God-given institution, which has been the cornerstone of Western civilization.
“In those countries (communist countries), government presumes daily to ‘redefine’ rights, relationships, values, and natural law,” he continued. “There, communiqués from the government can dictate the size of families, who lives and who dies, and what the very definition of ‘family’ and ‘marriage’ means.”
The archbishop asserted that it is an “undeniable truth” that marriage is “one man, one woman, united in lifelong love and fidelity, hoping for children.”
Dolan also said that the same-sex “marriage” issue is not about “true freedom” but “the liberty to do what we ought” and that not every “chic cause” deserves to be called a right.
“And, what about other rights, like that of a child to be raised in a family with a mom and a dad?” he queried.
The archbishop said that children are the reason why “marriage” is not just another economic arrangement or domestic partnership.
“Marriage is not simply a mechanism for delivering benefits: It is the union of a man and a woman in a loving, permanent, life-giving union to pro-create children,” he said.
Notwithstanding the bill’s religious liberty exemptions, Dolan said it is not a far cry to say that Catholics will be “coerced to violate our deepest beliefs to accommodate the newest state decree” – pointing to Canada and the United Kingdom as prime examples.
With the Senate divided 31 – 31 over the same-sex “marriage” bill introduced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, its fate rests with Majority Leader Dean Skelos (R – Long Island). Skelos met with the GOP conference for four hours Wednesday, but the New York Times reports that Republicans came to no consensus today about whether they would permit the bill to come the floor.
The state’s Conservative Party, which is a key GOP ally in New York, has vowed that they will refuse to support any GOP legislator that votes for the bill. A vote by the GOP to allow the bill to come to the floor could further stress ties between the two parties.
Skelos has said that if they decide to allow the bill to come to the floor, the vote will be Friday.
No comments:
Post a Comment