Amendment 2: What the Bishops are saying
Published: 09.30.08
The common good and the future of our society are served best through the natural order of a union of a man and a woman.”
ORLANDO | The state of Florida is considering an amendment to the state constitution that would define marriage as a state occurring only between a man and a woman.
A choice to vote “yes” or “no” to Amendment 2, or the Florida Marriage Protection Amendment, sponsored by Florida4Marriage and supported by the Catholic bishops of Florida, will appear on the ballot during the general election Nov. 4. The amendment needs 60 percent of the vote to pass, and once added to the constitution could not be removed by legislative or judicial review. The amendment would also effectively ban civil unions between people of the same sex.
Florida’s bishops will promote their stance toward Amendment 2 through parish bulletin inserts during the celebration of Marriage Sunday, Oct. 18-19. Priests and supporters of the amendment will speak in many churches about the amendment and the Catholic view of marriage.
In their statement, Florida’s bishops emphasized that Catholic teaching and sacramental theology, as well as tradition and sociological data, motivated their support of the constitutional amendment.
“The common good and the future of our society are served best through the natural order of a union of a man and a woman. Research and history support the traditional family as the best environment to nurture and raise healthy children who thrive both physically and emotionally,” the bishops said in the statement, released last month. They also emphasized their position was not motivated out of “discrimination or animosity to any group.”
Through the sacrament of marriage, spouses receive “the grace to love each other with the same love Christ has for his church. This grace perfects the couple’s love and strengthens their indissoluble unity,” the bishops said.
A gift from God
The Catholic sacramental view says that marriage is not a human institution, but instead a gift from God, with Scripture affirming the way the sexes complement one another, according to Sheila Hopkins, associate director for social concerns for the Florida Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Florida bishops.
“In the church, we clearly say that we don’t discriminate against anyone, that we must love everyone as a brother or sister,” said Sheila Hopkins. However, “in our church we hold sex relations to be between the marriage bonds,” as well as being something that is inherently open to children. Since a same-sex marriage cannot produce offspring, the Catholic Church cannot support it, she said.
Traditional marriage is also the basis for strong families, said Don Kazimir, respect life director for the Diocese of Palm Beach. “You need both parents in the family, especially when you’re raising kids,” he said.
Louise Ritz, family life director for the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, agreed. “I see great importance and urgency to protect the legal union of only one man and one woman as being a legally sanctioned marriage,” she said through e-mail. “Marriage provides fundamental benefits for family, children, society and future generations.”
The church’s view on Amendment 2 also stems from the Catholic teaching that sex is a sacred act that should occur only in the context of marriage and openness to fertility and children.
“There’s a movement among people to say let’s get back to our basic values and what we believe, and that is that marriage is the best environment for raising children,” she continued.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to constitutionalize our laws that deal with fundamental principles,” said Deborah Stafford Shearer, director of the Office of Advocacy and Justice for the Diocese of Orlando. “But we’re losing that sense of reverence for the body and for the whole family unit, the leadership of the parent and the identity of nurturing young people, and how these things interface with one another.”
Marriage as vocation
“Most religions hold the same understanding of marriage: that it’s monogamous and indissoluble. In our church, we say that you’re together forever. … We’re talking about the basic foundation of our society,” said Hopkins. “Marriage has been how we organize our society, and how children are born and educated, and how rights and inheritances are passed along. … In our church, we believe it is a sacrament between baptized persons and the presence of the Lord. We hold it very highly.”
“It’s been proved through research that children are happier, healthier, and have more stability in a two-parent household,” Hopkins continued. “We look at marriage as a vocation. That is your vocation in life and your call to act out your vocation, to witness to other people as well as your own family and within your church. And that’s why we think that this is how God witnesses our love for each other.”
Hopkins emphasized that the amendment does not remove domestic partnership rights granted by municipalities and private employers, nor does the church encourage their removal. Hopkins also noted that, in most cases, visiting a lawyer and making arrangements can provide many of the same possibilities regarding living wills and inheritances as legal marriage.
“We are countercultural,” Hopkins said. “We stand up for what we believe. … As an individual, you have rights, but we’re also responsible for our behavior and how we act in society, and we need to have rules and regulations. We’re looking at the long-term view of the right of a child to have a father and to know that father, and the complementarity of the sexes involved in raising that child. … We’ve just gotta get turned around.”
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