Tuesday, June 14, 2011

NY Catholic Leaders Face Real Problems: Gay marriage isn't one of them

Every ten minutes, a child in New York state is born into poverty, adding to the current level of 1 out of every 5 New York children living in poverty. Of those, nearly half a million live in extreme poverty, the most gut wrenching, back-breaking, inhumane poverty one can imagine in what should be a first world country – and they’re children.

Last year alone, there were nearly 76,000 violent crimes committed in the state of New York, including 861 homicides and nearly 3,000 incidents of rape. Homicide remains the leading cause of death for black men between the ages of 15 and 35.

This year, more than 113,000 individual New Yorkers will turn to homeless shelters, the highest level since data has been collected.

Despite that, the leadership of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York are expending time and resources in a last ditch effort to prevent the New York State Senate from voting to grant every New Yorker the right to enter into a civil marriage with the person they love. These actions mirror the efforts made by the Church in California and Maine, among other states, that includes spending millions of dollars to defeat votes to legalize marriage equality. This places the Archdiocese and Archbishop Timothy Dolan in opposition not only to the inevitable political progress of the state, but to the substantial majority of New Yorkers who support the freedom to marry.

In a blog post today, Archbishop Dolan compared the efforts by Governor Cuomo and the New York legislature to actions by China and North Korea. His Eminence says his position is not about denying anyone rights, except the reality is, of course, that it’s entirely about denying rights and continuing to codify and condone harmful bigotry.

For a leader of a church whose fundamental principle of social teaching, a central tenet of church policy for centuries and enunciated by Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus, is that of a “preferential option for the poor and vulnerable” the Church seems to focus a disturbing amount of time, energy and resources not on ameliorating the plight of the poor and vulnerable right here in America, but rather on immersing itself and wasting money in culture wars which it is ultimately losing. Let’s stop wasting our time on losing battles, let’s stop focusing on thinly veiled hatred for gays and lesbians and make a truly concerted effort to lift those children out of poverty, prevent those violent crimes, and reduce homelessness.

Oh, and if you live in New York, call or email your state Senator and ask him or her to do the right thing and vote to respect the dignity and equality of all New Yorkers.

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