Archbishop John Nienstedt and the Minnesota Catholic Conference, the public policy wing of Minnesota’s Catholic bishops, said Tuesday that they want a resolution to the state shutdown that protects poor Minnesotans. But their request also contains a slew of controversial social issues, including vouchers for private school students and a ban on certain forms of stem-cell research. The bishops didn’t back either Gov. Mark Dayton or legislative Republicans, but did criticize cuts to the social safety net.

The bishops attacked anti-government sentiment prominent in Republican talking points.

“Ensuring the welfare of all Minnesotans is a core function of government,” said Jason Adkins, MCC’s executive director, said in a statement. “Although controlling spending and putting the state on sound fiscal footing are important goals, those with limited means should not be shouldering that responsibility, especially as politicians continue to load budgets with tax loopholes, subsidies, and spending projects that serve narrow special interests.”

Rev. John M. LeVoir, Bishop of New Ulm, added that private charities such as Catholic Charities depend on partnerships with government in order to help those in need of assistance.

“The Church, of course, has a fundamental imperative from her Lord to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and shelter the homeless,” he said. “But the state should, when necessary, support the work of upholding the dignity of her citizens, thereby assuring the common good. In Minnesota, churches and non-profits have a long and fruitful history of collaborating with government to provide support to Minnesotans in need.”

The bishops said they oppose cuts to Minnesota’s General Assistance program and the Minnesota Family Investment Program, which provide subsidized health care and food for low income Minnesotans.

But while the bishops seem to be indicating support for Dayton’s plan, they threw a curve ball in asking that a slew of contentious social issues, opposed by Dayton and supported by Republicans, be included in any final negotiations.

The bishops are asking for a ban on taxpayer-funded abortion and a ban on certain types of stem cell research. In addition, the bishops are seeking scholarships and vouchers for private schools, programs that have been tried in other states and that have benefited the bottom line of Catholic schools.

“These policies should be a part of any final budget agreement because they promote both the sanctity of life and educational opportunity for parents and students who could not otherwise afford it,” Jason Adkins, executive director of MCC . “Protecting human life from conception to natural death, as well as supporting parental choice in education, has been and will remain priorities for Minnesota’s Catholic bishops.”

Republicans brought those issues to the bargaining table just before a lack of compromise brought the state to a shutdown.

The bishops’ request follows a move by an interfaith group of religious leaders who went to the Capitol on Tuesday to deliver a letter, signed by 235 congregation heads across the state, seeking a just solution to the budget impasse. No legislators came forward to receive their letter or gifts of bread, milk and honey — symbols of Minnesota’s abundance — in person.

Archbishop John Nienstedt penned a column on Thursday defending the Catholic Church’s decision to lobby for an amendment that would add a ban on same-sex marriage to the Minnesota Constitution. He said the amendment is not “anti-gay, mean-spirited and prejudicial.” Later in the column he endorses the words of his fellow Catholic, the Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who says if same-sex marriage is legalized, it could lead to polygamy and incest.

“Regrettably, the media and some secular commentators have chosen to mischaracterize this measure as anti-gay, mean-spirited and prejudicial,” wrote Nienstedt in the Archdiocese newspaper, the Catholic Spirit. “This is not the case or the intent behind the initiative.”

Nienstedt argued that children fare best in families with one mother and one father, an argument that seems to contradict most research on same-sex parenting.

“Pastorally, children flourish best in the context of having both a mother and a father. Every scientific study confirms this reality,” he wrote.

But a review of 81 studies of many family types released late last year showed the opposite.

“No research supports the widely held conviction that the gender of parents matters for child well-being,” wrote sociologists Stacey and Timothy Biblarz of the University of Southern California.

“Children being raised by same-gender parents, on most all of the measures that we care about, self-esteem, school performance, social adjustment and so on, seem to be doing just fine and, in most cases, are statistically indistinguishable from kids raised by married moms and dads on these measures,” Biblarz said.

Neinstedt included an excerpt of Archbishop Dolan, stating, “His argumentation is hard to refute.”

Dolan wrote, “If the definition of marriage is continually being altered, could it not in the future be morphed again to include multiple spouses or even family members?”

Dolan’s column was in response to a push by New York legislators and Gov. Andrew Cuoma to pass legislation legalizing same-sex marriage in that state.

Dolan’s comparison of same-sex marriage to incest and polygamy sparked criticism and he defended those criticisms on 60 Minutes, adding, “Where would then the tampering stop? I love my mom, I don’t have the right to marry her. There are certain rights and attractions in life that are very beautiful and noble, but don’t entitle you to marriage.”

Nienstedt and Minnesota’s Catholic bishops created a DVD during the 2010 election to engage Catholics to support a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, a move that sparked protest with the Catholic laity.

Catholic and Lutheran leadership in Minnesota sent an open letter to Gov. Mark Dayton and state elected officials on Monday urging them to preserve access to basic needs for the state’s poor. Both Dayton and Republican leadership have proposed cuts to projected funding for social services to fix a $5 billion budget hole, with Dayton proposing a mix of cuts and new revenue and Republicans proposing cuts alone.

“We trust that you will seek to govern the people of the state of Minnesota so that all citizens — particularly those who are poor and live on the margins of our communities — have access to housing, education, health care, and other human services,” the letter states.

The letter is signed by the majority of bishops from the the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Roman Catholic Church, including the Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Just under 50 percent of Minnesotans are either Lutheran or Catholic.

Here’s full text of the letter:

An Open Letter to Governor Mark Dayton and Members of the Minnesota Senate and Minnesota House of Representatives

From the Bishops of the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

By now, you are immersed in the challenges of providing legislative and executive leadership for all Minnesotans. As citizens, we take seriously the need for change in addressing the Herculean task that lies before us. The responsibilities you face as you lead us and consider the future of our state present opportunities to uphold the dignity and worth of all Minnesotans.

You are already deeply into erasing a large budget deficit, an enormous challenge that suggests both dollar savings and increased income to achieve a balanced budget that avoids devastating cuts in services to vulnerable people. In many of the political campaigns of last fall, we heard politicians speak of “fairness” and “equality” as they spoke of the task ahead. We ask you today to consider “justice” as you engage in your work. Justice means that the common good of all citizens serves as the hallmark of a strong society and a vital economy.

We expect that, as you seek to balance the budget, you will engage in civil and respectful dialog rather than partisanship and posturing. We trust that you will seek to govern the people of the state of Minnesota so that all citizens — particularly those who are poor and live on the margins of our communities — have access to housing, education, health care, and other human services. We suggest that the most eff ective means of eliminating poverty resides in policies that lift people out of a safety net to a level of sustainability.

Minnesota has a history of caring for all its citizens, and all of us are heirs of those who shaped that legacy. Catholics and Lutherans — representing some two million Minnesotans — have partnered in that legacy as the largest providers of health care, human services, and non-public education. Being a state that cares for its people has been the hallmark of Minnesota. And the most telling measure of how well we care for each other is to consider how we treat those who are most vulnerable among us. We believe there exists in the people of this state the will to respond to the human needs among the poor with compassion, generosity, and resolve. We challenge you to remember all Minnesotans as you make decisions that affect the people, the economy, and the character of this state. We pledge our support, our prayer, and our best effort to these same ends as we each seek to be faithful stewards of the common good in this state.

Roman Catholic Bishops of Minnesota
Archbishop John Nienstedt, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Bishop Michael Hoeppner, Diocese of Crookston
Bishop John Kinney, Diocese of Saint Cloud
Bishop John LeVoir, Diocese of New Ulm
Bishop Lee Piché, Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Bishop John Quinn, Diocese of Winona
Bishop Paul Sirba, Diocese of Duluth

ELCA Bishops of Minnesota
Bishop Jon Anderson, Southwestern Minnesota Synod
Bishop Thomas Aitken, Northeastern Minnesota Synod
Bishop Craig Johnson, Minneapolis Area Synod
Bishop Peter Rogness, Saint Paul Area Synod
Bishop Harold Usgaard, Southeastern Minnesota Synod
Bishop Lawrence Wohlrabe, Northwestern Minnesota Synod

The Minnesota Family Council called in a cadre of evangelical pastors on Monday to express support for Catholic Archbishop John Neinstedt’s campaign for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in Minnesota and condemned those working toward marriage equality for same-sex couples. Pastor Jim Anderson of Hasting said that same-sex intercourse is “against nature and wrong,” adding that the “body parts don’t fit,” while Steve Goold of New Hope Church said that marriage is important because it tames men from their “passions” and protects women from being exploited by men.

Anderson spoke of the importance of opposite-sex marriage saying it’s best for children and that same-sex marriage is “dangerous.” “Same-sex marriage is incapable of benefiting society in any of these ways,” he said. “There is a strong and documented case can be made for society being harmed by too much same-sex marriage.”

He spoke of same-sex intercourse and body parts. “Compassion and love for our homosexual neighbor does not allow us to remain silent concerning the disproportionately high rate of measurable harm that attends same-sex relationships,” he said. “That is why we believe that reasonable persons know that same-sex intercourse is against nature and wrong. The body parts do not fit. We are talking her about material structures of the male female body.”

(The 2002 National Survey of Family Growth, a project of the Centers for Disease Control found that “40 percent of males ages 25–44 have had anal sex with a female, and 35 percent of females of this age have had anal sex with a male” without harmful effects.)

He added, “Today we are asking all pastors and all Christians to be of one mind and reject the manipulation of language and meaning involved in calling marriage anything other than a one man and one woman relationship.”

New Hope Church’s Goold read a statement that he said was “formulated over a period of several weeks” to defend an anti-gay marriage campaign initiated by Neinstedt last week that includes a letter to more than a million Minnesota Catholics as well as two DVD messages.

“Citizens of Minnesota, in our radically confused society, the meaning of marriage is debated with increasing intensity, the institution that has formed the bedrock of civil society is showing cracks under pressure,” he said. He cited high divorce rates and single parenting as evidence of that attack.

“That attack comes in the state of Minnesota where pending bills before the Minnesota Legislature and one lawsuit would legalize same-sex marriage,” said Goold. “We cannot state strongly enough the importance of the value of marriage for the social good and the potentially dangerous ramifications of a social experiment such as legalizing same-sex marriage.”

He then said that marriage is not about rights. “Natural marriage is not at route a political issue or a matter of human rights. Natural marriage serves the common social good in all known human civilizations.”

He said marriage “regulates sexuality by keeping it confined to permanent and exclusively men and women relationships.”

“Every culture has the need to civilize it’s male population through natural marriage between a man and a woman by channeling their sexual and masculine energy.”

“One of the most important social roles that women play,” Goold said, “is getting men to behave by channeling their passions and work behaviors in socially productive ways. It protects women from being exploited by men.”

After reading the statement, Goold said, “I want to confirm, support and encourage, affirm to the archbishop of the Catholic church
and to all those who believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman that this is the time we stand forward with courage and conviction.”

Here are videos of the Minnesota Family Council press conference.

Cathedral of St. Paul. Photo: Wikipedia

Some of Minnesota’s Catholic bishops are preparing a push against the legalization of same-sex marriage in the final two months of the 2010 campaign season. So far, most Minnesota bishops are not making their plans public, but Bishop John Quinn of the Winona Diocese gave parishioners a glimpse in a recent newsletter (PDF). “The bishops of Minnesota are alarmed by the continuing attacks on the institution of marriage, and we are taking action,” he wrote.

Quinn reports that the diocese is sending parishes a DVD that provides “more detail about the Church’s teaching on marriage and about the possible effects that a same sex marriage policy would have in our state.”

Traditional marriage is suffering attacks, he wrote, and “the most threatening now are efforts to legalize ‘same sex’ or ‘gay’ marriage, that is, marriage between two men or between two women.”

He adds, “I hope that you will become one of the thousands of Catholics who have contacted legislators and told them that marriage is a lifetime relationship between one man and one woman.”

The effort is part of a larger campaign by Minnesota’s Roman Catholic bishops. While the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis hasn’t yet responded to the Minnesota Independent’s query about its plans for the campaign, it did offer some hints to Divinity and Beyond, a Minnesota blog about religion.

Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the Diocese said, “The details are yet to be firmed up. I don’t want to talk about it just yet. This is still kind of taking shape.”

Michael Bayly of the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities, a group working to reform the Roman Catholic Church so that it is more inclusive of LGBT Catholics, said the campaign isn’t a shock.

“I’m not surprised that the Minnesota Roman Catholic bishops are planning an anti-marriage equality campaign,” he said. “The good news is that unlike five years ago, they’re now on the defensive, not the offensive.”

He said the bishops are reacting to marriage equality legislation in the last legislative session and the possibility of Minnesotans electing a governor who supports same-sex marriage. DFLer Mark Dayton and Independence party candidate Tom Horner support it, while GOPer Tom Emmer is opposed.

“Marriage equality is coming to Minnesota, and they’re clearly not happy about it,” added Bayly. “In many ways I see what they’re doing as a last ditch effort to try and get Catholic voters to turn the election away from a win for the Democrats and thus marriage equality.”

He said his group is already working on an event that will run counter to those efforts. CPCSM is bringing in Daniel Maguire, author of “Catholic Defense of Same-Sex Marriage,” to the Twin Cities on Oct. 21. The event aims to “get the word out that one can be Catholic and support marriage equality, and not all Catholics are going along with the anti-gay and anti-marriage equality rhetoric and actions of the bishops,” he said.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis brought in Maggie Gallagher earlier this year to discuss strategies for opposing gay marriage. Gallagher is a founder of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that has targeted Minnesota extensively in 2010.

And last week, Archbishop John Neinstedt renewed his call for an amendment to the Minnesota Constitution banning same-sex marriage.

“As a citizen, it is important to understand how marriage, as a union between one man and one woman, has been and continues to be an essential good for our society,” he wrote.

Every year on Good Friday, Pro-Life Action Ministries hosts a protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic on Ford Parkway in St. Paul. This year, the leader of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis showed up- the first time someone of his stature participated, protesters said.

Planned Parenthood set up a “pledge a protester” system that allowed supporters to donate a set dollar amount for each anti-abortion protester that turned out. When the archbishop brought out additional anti-abortion activists–reports say several hundred–the level of donations for the Planned Parenthood clinic increased. The clinic raised $14,000 on Friday and received carloads of food donations for local food pantries.

“The day went well and we know that the majority of Minnesotans are supportive of our work in communities across the state,” said Kathi Di Nicola of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNS). “We’ve been able to take that day back by reaffirming our commitment to serving women, raising money for the clinic and joining with the community to take action that improves the lives of women and families. That’s our mission.”

One anti-abortion protester, Megan Noll, told Minnesota Public Radio that the archbishop’s presence was responsible for the large crowd. “I think it makes a huge difference, I think this is probably the biggest crowd I have ever seen here,” Noll said.

The money raised at the expense of anti-abortion protesters will go toward family planning services at the clinic. PPMNS said it provided more than 300,000 units of contraception and 20,000 breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings to women in Minnesota and the Dakotas within the past year.