Tomorrow is Election Day. Tomorrow voters in four states will face referendums on marriage: Maryland, Maine, Minnesota, and Washington State. The bishops in those states have been energetically preaching and teaching about the authentic meaning of marriage, as we showed in a recap post two weeks ago. Today, on the eve of the election, we share with you timely prayers, reflections on the importance of protecting marriage for the sake of the common good, and words of wisdom to consider when voting tomorrow.
Prayers
- Prayer Before An Election (USCCB website)
- Prayer for the Promotion and Protection of Marriage (MUR website)
Reflections
- Catholics Care. Catholics Vote: Strengthening and Defending Marriage is a Matter of Justice (USCCB website)
- Columns, letters, videos, and more from Bishops in states with a marriage referendum tomorrow (MUR website)
Words of wisdom about marriage and the common good:
“Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage. Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice, since it entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike.” – Pope Benedict XVI, address to U.S. bishops
“Some may suggest that our society’s traditional understanding of marriage has already unraveled and that redefining marriage won’t harm it further. But this radical redefinition of marriage will irreparably undermine the irreplaceable role that both a mother and father play in the life of a child and relegate their relationship to an arbitrary status among many other family arrangements.” – Cardinal Edwin F. O’Brien, Baltimore (emeritus): article, “A radical redefinition of marriage”
“To promote and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman is itself a matter of justice.” “Everyone has a stake in a stable, flourishing, and loving society created and sustained in no small part by marriage between a man and a woman.” – Bishop Richard Malone, Buffalo (formerly Portland, Maine): Pastoral letter, “Marriage: Yesterday-Today-Always”
“The obvious and intimate connection between the conjugal act and conception, along with the universally recognized importance of stable marriages for the education and formation of children, removes marriage from the private sphere and places it into the public realm, an institution very much part of the common good and therefore a concern of the state.” – Minnesota Bishops, “A Brief Catechesis on Marriage”
“Let us not allow ourselves or others to be fooled by false reasoning. Protecting the definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman does not make marriage ‘discriminatory.’ It recognizes marriage between one man and one woman to be unique – unique among all other kinds of human relationships.” – Bishop Joseph Tyson, Yakima: “A Pastoral Letter on Marriage and Referendum 74“
2 responses to “Election Eve: Prayers, reflections, and more”
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Hi, I Love You.Are You aware that Mitt Romney passed Gay Marriage in less than one year as govenor of MA? It was fairly easy for him to do this…He placed his Gay Friends on the Court So that they could pass Gay marriage while he was able to keep up the Facade that he was against it.
He is a tricky one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Massachusetts
Marriage is the union between one man and one woman. This should have never changed. This word has already been taken.
The challenge here is that some states have already passed this like when Mitt Romney was Gov. of Ma. Ma is the first state to hand out Gay Marriage licences. How can we reclaim this word marriage when they have already changed the definition?