But it looks like there are several Catholic parishes that won’t collect signatures for R-74.
The congregation at Seattle’s Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church gave the Rev. Tim Clark a standing ovation Sunday when he announced that the parish would not gather signatures for a referendum to repeal same-sex marriage.
The parish became the sixth in Seattle to opt out of the petition drive for Referendum 74 that has been endorsed and foisted on parishes by Archbishop J. Peter Sartain.
“I am happy to report that Our Lady of the Lake parishoners have been overwhelmingly and, thus far, unanimously supportive of the decision I made NOT to gather signatures in support of this Referendum,” Clark wrote in response to an e-mail.
“The standing ovation experienced during one of the Masses says less about me and much more about the health of this parish. I only wished the archbishop could have experienced the sustained applause — the ‘sensus fidelium’ — of the people. He needs to listen to this ‘voice.’ That is my prayer.”
Other parishes to shun the signature drive have includes St. James Cathedral, St. Joseph Church, St. Mary’s Church, St. Patrick Church and Christ Our Hope Catholic Church.
Obviously, the Church collecting signatures at all for this referendum is a problem. There were exemptions carved out for them, and other religious organizations that didn’t want to perform same sex ceremonies. And yet, they can’t just live and let live with the law. Still, the parishes not participating is a great (even if small, and possibly overrepresented as a story) part of the story.
I don’t want to overstate this, because the Roman Catholic church remains very much a not-democracy, and the Archbishop Peter J. Sartrain, who has been foisting this petition drive on his parishes, sounds like a real not-peach. He’s been trying to muster Catholics in favor of Referendum 74, which would block Washington’s new same-sex marriage law.
But this outright refusal to accede to the Archbishop’s wishes touches on a post I made back in February arguing that the Conference of Catholic Bishops’ attempts to mobilize a “Catholic voting bloc” a la the conservative evangelical Protestant vote, would backfire badly. Yes, on paper the Church is very hierarchical; in practice, Catholic voters are much more diverse than the Bishops would like to admit
Does this mean that the Catholic parishes that are collecting signatures will get their non-profit status yanked? Someone should look into this.
The legislature should stay out of the church and the church should stay out of the legislature.
The Catholic Church really should not take a position on issues of sexuality. Credibility on such issues is not something that the Catholic hierarchy has.
The right wing abstractions of the institutionalized hierarchy of the Catholic Church haven’t held much sway since the Diet of Worms.
I’m an adult-convert Catholic and a parishioner at Our Lady of the Lake. I know Father Clark didn’t take his decision lightly (not that he does about most anything)–he and Sartain have known each other since they were seminarians in Rome.
Ours is a pretty left-of-center congregation, perhaps more than most of us individuals realized. We have a very active Peace and Justice committee, conduct activites to feed the poor and homeless and provide regular assistance to Tent City Three. We’ve also had a number of letter-writing campaigns to the White House and our representatives in Olympia and the “other Washington” in connection with social-justice issues and aspects of our nation’s most recent military adventures–so in a way we’ve approached the degree of political involvement which participation in a petition drive would entail, taking care not to endorse particular candidates but certainly trying to have greater influence with current officeholders.
I’ve personally been surprised at how many pew-mates of my own generation (I’m 62), many of whom are ex-military and/or current or former Boeing employees, have revealed themselves to be passionately anti-war. This has been particularly true of those who’ve actually seen combat.
That being said, I’ve still found it most surprising how many are strongly in favor of gay rights, and the realization has dawned on me that most everyone else, like me, has one or more relatives or close friends who are in committed same-sex relationships. My wife and I were present a decade ago at my sister’s wedding in Canada to her partner of already 20 years at that time. I love them both dearly and their genuine affection for and loyalty to each other could set an example for most of the rest of us. In final analysis, if it comes down to a choice between my own family and following the dictates of a bunch of guys wearing funny hats, blood’s a hell of a lot thicker than holy water.
@4
The Catholic Church has a long history with the political left, it’s just been out of favor for the last 20 years or so. Liberation theology started out as part of the Catholic Church.
@5
Make that 30 years, not 20. Damn, I’m getting old.