The Church according to Governor O’Malley
Image via WikipediaMaryland’s Governor Martin O’Malley’s recently announced his decision to support a bill to legalize gay “marriage” in the upcoming Maryland legislative session. This decision has been a spectacle, to be sure, considering his professed Catholic faith. But perhaps more shocking than his flip-flop on the issue is where this “evolution” of thinking has led him—to a place of complete contradiction with himself.
When his decision drew immediate criticism from the Catholic Conference of Maryland and from Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien, who called the act one of “pure political expediency,” O’Malley responded in a letter, saying, among other things, that he has come to view the policy of treating same-sex relationships different from marriages as “unjust.” In doing so he declared his sincere willingness to be seen as a sham from both sides of the gay marriage issue.
For if it is true that it is “unjust” to leave marriage as it is and has existed for millennia, then the Catholic Church throughout the country is teaching injustice. If Mr. O’Malley is correct, then Pope Benedict XVI was acting as an agent of injustice when he wrote, “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family,” and “…all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, [and] Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way,” when he served under Blessed John Paul II as prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Yet Mr. O’Malley ostensibly remains a Catholic, and appears willing to overlook his Church’s advocacy for injustice.
One wonders where Mr. O’Malley believes the injustice in the Church’s teaching ends. If Mr. O’Malley were Pope, would he discard as unjust other Catholic teachings? Is his choice in denomination simply an instance of the resignation many feel at the polls—that Catholicism is the least-worst of his choices? If not, and he thinks another denomination is more “just,” why remain Catholic?
I say all of this to question why homosexual activists feel they should trust Mr. O’Malley. The Catholic Church, although it insists on “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” toward homosexually attracted individuals, teaches that homosexual acts are, in the words of Scripture, a “serious depravity,” and that they are “intrinsically disordered.”
There is no reconciling the Governor’s position on gay marriage with this teaching, and his continued Catholic profession, his frequent attendance at Mass, and, one must assume, his financial support of the Church’s institutions. He either does not take his faith seriously, or he does not take his support of gay marriage seriously. To trust him on this issue is to gamble that it is the former. The odds look good, but it is a gamble nonetheless.
On the other side of the aisle are the faithful Catholics, or those trying to be, at least. If Mr. O’Malley’s logic has even the slightest bit of heft, then when they learn from such Shepherds as Pope Benedict and Blessed John Paul II in their quest to grow in holiness, they must at the same time worry that they are also growing in injustice. Is the Catholic Church the path to sainthood or the road to perdition?
Mr. O’Malley by his words and deeds seems to think it is both, which suggests that he is a very confused man, on an issue that individuals are bound to take seriously. Catholics when presented with this model are left no other option than to dismiss his position and its logic as complete rubbish, pray for his enlightenment on the issue, and vote for someone else when given the opportunity.
Scott Lloyd is an attorney for LegalWorks Apostolate in Front Royal, Virginia, and is a Contributing Writer for HLI America. He is formerly a resident of Takoma Park, MD.
