By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Bishops in the state of New Jersey are instructing their priests to read or distribute a letter this weekend asking Catholics to pray that lawmakers will not allow same-sex marriage to become law in their state. The measure is aimed at countering a move by lawmakers in the state to rush through a bill permitting gay marriage before Governor-elect Chris Christie, who opposes the measures, takes office.
According to a report by NJ.com, the bishops’ letter restates Catholic teaching on marriage and encourages the faithful to pray “because marriage faces challenges from a society more focused on individual satisfaction than on the Gospel.”
The letter goes on to say that “One of the most serious challenges, is the current effort to pass bills in the New Jersey legislature that would change the very definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman in order to allow same-sex ‘marriage.’ We must not stand silent in the face of this serious challenge.”
Catholics are asked to “pledge their personal support” for family members, including those “who choose to remain single” – a reference to gay people and heterosexual people, according to James Goodness, a spokesman for the Newark Archdiocese.
The battle over same-sex marriage is heating up in the state since the election of the new pro-life, pro-family Governor-elect Chris Christie who will replace Governor John Corzine, a gay marriage supporter. Christie has made it clear he will veto any bill allowing same-sex marriage that should arrive on his desk.
This leaves lawmakers with 10 weeks to pass a bill pending in the state legislature that will legalize same-sex marriage. Even though Democrats are in the majority in the state house, there are not enough votes to pass the bill at the current time and after the defeat of a gay marriage bill in Maine last month by popular vote, even more undecided lawmakers may decide to vote against the measure.
As a result, a meeting on Nov. 23 to decide whether or not to proceed with a vote ended with no decision.
New Jersey passed a domestic-partnership law in 2002 and a civil-unions law in 2006. If it does manage to pass a same-sex marriage bill before Gov. Corzine leaves office, it would become the sixth state in the U.S. where it is legal, joining Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont and New Hampshire.
Thirty states have banned gay marriage through constitutional amendments and the people of the state of Maine recently exercised their constitutional right to a People’s Veto to overturn a bill legalizing gay marriage that was passed by the legislature last spring.
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