Minnesota Catholics fund fight against gay marriage in Maine

(Lavverrue, Flickr)

Though the Maine Legislature passed legislation to allow same-sex marriage, residents voted against the bill in a ballot measure on election day by a margin of 53 to 47 percent. The Catholic church was a major funder of the forces opposed to same-sex marriage, and as MPR’s Tom Scheck notes, Minnesota Catholic were among those funding the opposition.

The Diocese of Crookston gave $5,000; the Dioceses of Winona and La Crosse, Wis., each donated $500; and New Ulm’s bishop personally gave $250.

Catholic dioceses around the country spent nearly $560,000 to repeal the same-sex marriage law (total fundraising by opponents of same-sex marriage was over $4 million), but not all Catholics opposed same-sex marriage.

Some 500 Catholics signed a letter stating in part, “We are Catholics who are concerned that the current political campaign to repeal Maine’s civil marriage equality law is at odds with fundamental principles of truth and charity, and with vital American traditions of separation of church and state.”