The following is an excerpt from a joint statement of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Minnesota Catholic Conference:
“A group calling itself ‘Catholics for Marriage Equality MN’ seeks to confuse Catholics and the public about authentic Church teaching related to matters of marriage and sexuality. The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC) wish to make it known that this group does not speak for the Catholic Church, is not an agent or entity of the Archdiocese, MCC, or the universal Church, and has no authority to determine what does and does not constitute Christian doctrine and morality.”
Catholic League president Bill Donohue applauds this statement:
As everyone knows, the term “marriage equality” is code for homosexual marriage. The Catholic Church, no surprise, is opposed to treating marriage as an alternative lifestyle. It follows, then, that a group which calls itself “Catholics for Marriage Equality” is a fraud. Another fraud is this group’s sister organization, “Catholics for Equality.” There was still another fraud, “Catholics United for Equality,” but it has since merged with “Catholics for Equality.”
No one really believes that two men can marry, and this includes those homosexuals deemed “married” in states that entertain this fiction. But a separate matter is the right of homosexuals, and their heterosexual supporters, to declare that Catholicism is somehow agnostic on this issue. It is not. There is only one teaching body in the Catholic Church, the Magisterium, and it neither recognizes nor sanctions social arrangements that compete with marriage.
Kudos to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Minnesota Catholic Conference for bringing clarity to an issue that some have dishonestly tried to muddle.
