Recently, the Church of Latter Day Saints has been all over the news about their plot to destroy same sex marriage. Mormons are charged with being one of the most active proponents of Proposition 8. And rightfully so. They gave over $15 million dollars to the cause—nearly half of the cause’s bank. Now, protestors of the passage of Proposition 8 have targeted Mormon churches and even—in some instances—the entire state of Utah.
But the Catholic bishop in Utah wants to remind everyone that the Mormons didn’t do it alone. Bishop John C. Wester, bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, stated:
Like our friends in the Mormon faith, the Catholic Church has long championed and promoted the sacredness of traditional marriage and the importance of the family in our society. While acknowledging that this position is not universally held in our society today, our churches are committed to proclaiming the truth and we cherish our ability to participate in the democratic process.
Seriously? It is like children clamoring to be known as the bully in first grade. And wasn’t it Archbishop George Niederauer who brought the Mormons in on the plot in the first place?
Nevertheless, Bishop Wester is right. The Catholic bishops, Knights of Columbus, and other Catholic right-wingers did put their efforts into overturning Proposition 8. They gave millions of dollars (at least $1.4 million from the Knights and $200,000 from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops). They preached from their pulpits on how to vote. They put inserts in their bulletins. The USCCB even put out the following video in English and Spanish to express their concerns on same-sex marriage here.
In the end, the Catholic proponents of Proposition 8 were successful. According to exit polling data, 64% of Catholics voted ‘yes’ on Proposition 8 and Catholics make up nearly a third of California voters. However, something similar to the Bradley effect may have occurred as just before the election only 48% of Catholics supported the measure.
And now, after the Bishops’ meeting in Baltimore this week, it looks like the bishops—with the help of the Knights of Columbus—are going to try to take the ‘Prop 8 show’ on the road. They have made two out of their nine priority initiatives through 2011 on the strengthening of marriage.
Not all Catholics will be supporting the bishops in their efforts. In a recent article for the National Catholic Reporter, Nicole Sotelo wrote, “As a Catholic, I believe it is time we forgo another constitutional amendment, or “new law,” that continues to uphold special privileges for some. It is time we begin creating a society based on “the law which we had from the first,” a law of love.”
