St. Paul Cathedral. Source: Wikipedia

Catholics from both sides of the issue are weighing in on the plan by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis to create ad hoc committees in every Catholic church in Minnesota to push the state’s constitutional same-sex marriage ban.

One lay Catholic who works for a church-affiliated organization, who asked not to be identified for fear of losing their job, told the Minnesota Independent that the organized campaign in support of the marriage amendment was “offensive, divisive and against the image of Christ we see in the Gospels.”

“But honestly after the sex abuse scandal and the cover-ups made by the hierarchy, nothing they do shocks me anymore,” the source said. ”After watching the Catholic Church use funds to pay for their lawyers, pay off victims and now shove through this amendment, I’ve decided to withhold my tithe from the church. I do not want to provide them more money to defend themselves or lobby against me and those I love. Instead, I will give that money directly to services in Minnesota that provide food and housing for the poorest among us.”

The move by Archbishop John Nienstedt is out of touch with many lay Catholics, according to a large survey of Catholics released on Monday that showed only 35 percent of Catholics oppose same-sex marriage.

The decision has riled some Catholics who oppose the religion’s opposition to same-sex marriage rights.

“Minnesota bishops have just taken the unusual step of urging parish priests across the state to form committees to help pass the proposed anti-marriage amendment in 2012,” wrote Freedom to Marry, a national group that supports marriage rights for same-sex couples. The group recently registered with the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board to work on the campaign to defeat the amendment.

The group continued with an appeal for money: “This isn’t the first time we’ve faced a multi-million dollar campaign funded by the hierarchy of the Catholic Church to ban the freedom to marry. With your help, this time we will be prepared.”

The Rainbow Sash Movement, a national group working to protest the church’s policies on LGBT people, called Nienstedt’s plans an “abuse of authority.”

“Above and beyond all this, Archbishop Nienstedt appears not to have any concern about the unity of the Archdiocese in his drive to stigmatize the gay marriage as threat to society. He is naive if he thinks that Catholics will buckle under his political direction in this,” wrote Bill O’Connor, spokesperson of the Rainbow Sash Movement. “If anything has damaged marriage in our society, one only has to look to divorce. Perhaps this where the Archbishop should put his energies rather than trying impose an interpretation of marriage that is not grounded [in]  today’s reality, by making gay people scapegoats.”

Scott Alessi, writing for U.S. Catholic, which is published by a Roman-Catholic community of priests and brothers called the Claretian Missionaries, said Niensted’s decision was “unusual.”

“Nienstedt has made clear that for priests in his archdiocese, fighting to ensure that the state defines marriage in the same way as the church is today’s top priority,” Alessi wrote.

Alessi wondered if anti-gay marriage amendment was the most appropriate use of resources: ”If an archbishop can call upon all his pastors to form grassroots committees, appoint parish leaders, and organize a large-scale effort, is this the issue on which to do it? What if every parish developed an unemployment committee dedicated to helping out of work people in the parish community find jobs?”

St. Paul Cathedral. Source: Wikipedia

Archbishop John Nienstedt sent a letter to every priest in the state at the start of October urging them to put every Catholic church in Minnesota tow work passing a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

“It is imperative that we marshal our resources to educate the faithful about the Church’s teachings on these matters, and to vigorously organize and support a grass roots effort to get out the vote to support the passage of the amendment,” the letter read. It went out on Oct. 4 to every priest in the state.

The archbishop said it wants priests in every parish to identify a “church captain” in order to create an “ad hoc committee” in every church in the state. The “church captain” is a component of the Schubert Flint strategy used in 2008′s divisive Proposition 8 battle in California.

The strategy mirrors a similar one used by conservative Christians in California to pass Proposition 8 and end marriage rights for same-sex couples.

Schubert Flint was a public affairs firm at the heart of California’s successful push by conservative Christians to repeal marriage rights for that state’s same-sex couples. In a post-mortem, the firm wrote about it’s use of church captains:

“We built a campaign volunteer structure around both time-honored campaign grassroots tactics of organizing in churches, with a ground-up structure of church captains, precinct captains, zip code supervisors and area directors; and the latest Internet and web-based grassroots tools.”

Schubert Flint has been active in Minnesota, in particular during the 2010 gubernatorial election when it created a series of ads attacking DFL and Independence Party candidates for their support of rights for same-sex couples.

According to Nienstedt’s letter, the church captains will be organized by the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Catholic church, which will in turn report to the Minnesota for Marriage coalition for statewide efforts. Minnesota for Marriage is made up of the Minnesota Family Council, MCC and the National Organization for Marriage.

“A major issues will be placed before the State of Minnesota in the November 2012 election. a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” Nienstedt wrote. “The sanctity of marriage and vital role of the family is at stake. It is a firmly-held teaching of our church that a marriage is a union of a husband and a wife, and that they together are the ones suited to be a father and a mother.”

He added, “To define it otherwise is a detriment to the common good of society.”

Here’s the full letter from Nienstedt:

nienstedtletter

Source: Michael Bayly

A group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Catholics won’t be receiving communion at the Cathedral of St. Paul this Pentecost Sunday, according to the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. Members of the Rainbow Sash movement, they will attempt to receive the Eucharist on Sunday anyway, in hopes of starting a dialogue with Archbishop John Nienstedt about the role of gays and lesbians in the church. But Nienstedt had strong words for the group, saying he won’t debate church teachings.

Rainbow Sash movement members, LGBT Catholics and friends, wear a rainbow sash each Pentecost to identify themselves as LGBT church members and supporters. If they are denied the Eucharist they go back to the pews and remain standing as acknowledgment of being denied. If they do receive the Eucharist, they kneel as they are expected to.

The archdiocese, which says the group is merely about disruptive protest, released this statement on Wednesday:

The archdiocese has received word that a group dissenting from the church’s teaching on sexuality will be wearing signs of protest (rainbow sashes) at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Pentecost Sunday during the noon Mass. Those wearing such sashes will not be allowed to receive Holy Communion, since they have publicly broken communion with the teachings of the church.

The Holy Eucharist should never be politicized by protesters in this way. Theirs is a sign of disrespect and irreverence to the body and blood of Jesus.

But Rainbow Sash members insist the sashes are not a protest.

“We cannot repeat too often that we attend Mass on Pentecost to celebrate who we are, not to protest,” said a statement on their website, which was part of a letter sent to Nienstedt. “We participate in Mass in the same way we do all the other days of the year. But on Pentecost we come out of the closet as LGBT Catholics, family and friends to remind our fellow Catholics that we too are part of God’s loving family.”

The group said it only seeks a dialogue with the archbishop. Nienstedt, who also urges other churchgoers to refrain from sharing communion with those wearing sashes, said the matter is not up for debate. In a letter to the group, he wrote:

With regard to the dialogue you request, it would first be essential that you state clearly that you hold with the conviction all that the Church teaches on matters of human sexuality. If you do not believe, then there cannot be dialogue, but only debate. The truths of our faith are not open to debate.

In the past, however, the issue has been up for debate. In 2004, former Archbishop Harry Flynn offered the group communion, setting off a firestorm among conservative members of the church. Flynn said it was part of pastoral care.

“We all stand very strong in our teaching concerning human sexuality, and what is right and what is wrong, and the teaching of the church concerning homosexuality, the teaching of the church concerning marriage between one man and one woman,” he said in 2004. “Then as you step away from the strong articulation of the teachings, you get into the pastoral practice of what do you do in some of these very difficult and challenging situations.”

But in 2005, he changed his mind and from then on LGBT Catholics who visibly identify themselves as such are denied the sacrament.

Those who identify themselves with the sashes do so for various reasons, as Lisa Nilles found when compiling a collection of responses from Rainbow Sash members on why they participate in the movement’s Pentecost observation each year. Many of them were parents or friends of LGBT church members.

“I have a son who is 6’2″ with dark curly hair, marvelous design skills, who is a plain old fashioned good person who just happens to be gay,” one parent said. “I am tired of ‘my’ Church ignoring his many qualities in order to focus on the mystery of his sexuality which, because they cannot understand, they chose to condemn. So I thought this a good way to show my unconditional support for him and all who share this mystery.”

Another parent spoke of wearing the sash “to celebrate the intrinsic goodness of my lesbian daughter and every other GLBT child of God. If solidarity with the marginalized is perceived as resistance to Church teaching, so be it.”

“This is, I think, the fourth year my wife and I attended this Pentecost service [at the cathedral],” he continued. “We are involved in a number of social justice issues and solidarity with GLBT persons is an important extension of that outreach, made more personal to us because we have a lesbian daughter. My daughter is right when she says, ‘My folks would be involved even if they didn’t have me because that’s who they are.’

“I am proud of that and will do anything nonviolently to counter the prejudice and bigotry of the Catholic Church.”

The Minnesota Catholic Conference, the lobbying group for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, hailed the DFL omnibus bill on Tuesday as promoting “dignity and the common good” and for supporting those most in need. “While the HHS Budget Omnibus bill contains hurtful cuts, it recognizes the importance of maintaining critical assistance for Minnesota’s poorest families — especially in our ailing economy,” the group said.

The group implied that Pawlenty should sign the bill. “Gov. Tim Pawlenty has until Friday, May 15 to sign or veto the HHS Budget Omnibus bill,” said the Conference. “While the bill contains $489 million in cuts for Fiscal Year (FY) 2010-11 and $742 million in cuts for FY 2012-13, it preserves many needed services for our sisters and brothers who are poor and vulnerable.”

Catholic Charities also weighed in on the bill this week. Kathy Tomlin, director of the Catholic Charities Office for Social Justice, said even the cuts passed by the legislature are too deep — and those proposed by Pawlenty would be devastating.

One of the most egregious cuts debated at the Minnesota Capi­tol were those that would strip services from General Assistance Medical Care, a health care program that serves very low-income persons. Thirty-two thousand people are on GAMC, some 350 are clients of Catholic Charities,” wrote Tomlin. “While the Pawlenty administration doesn’t propose cutting the whole program, many of its services would be eliminated, including in-patient hospital care, dental services, radiology, eyeglasses, occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy and audiology services.”

She said that the state can’t cut its way out of the deficit. “While it is true that the cost of health care is adding to the state’s fi­nan­cial woes, cutting those with the fewest resources from access to health care doesn’t seem to address the real heart of the problem.”

The Archdiocese has been outspoken about making sure cuts don’t impact the poor.

Archbishop John Nienstedt and the state’s other bishops sent a letter to legislators last month encouraging them to balance the budget with a mix of revenue increases and cuts. “We believe that resolving the budget deficit through spending cuts alone will do great harm to Minnesotans and our economy,” they wrote. “We urge you to support raising sufficient revenue as part of a comprehensive approach to resolving.”

The bishops said that cuts to health and human services should spare the poor. “Catholic social teaching upholds the role of government to assist individuals and communities when they cannot help themselves. In performing this role, the state is fulfilling its moral responsibility to promote the common good.”