Boston Cardinal, local Catholics to support a ballot vote on marriage

Boston, Mass., May 8, 2006 / 22:00 pm

Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley is urging Catholics in his archdiocese to contact their state senators and representatives and urge them to include a new amendment--defining marriage as an act between one man and one woman--on the November 2008 ballot.

“Our elected officials must hear from Catholics,” the archbishop said in a letter he had published in The Pilot, the local diocesan newspaper.

“In order to ensure that citizens can participate in decisions on the definition of marriage, it is important that you contact your legislators,” he wrote.

The cardinal said that he has joined a coalition, including the other bishops of Massachusetts, Catholic Citizenship and VoteOnMarriage.org, to “support the right of citizens to vote on the definition of marriage.”

The Massachusetts State Legislature is expected to debate a proposed constitutional amendment, defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman, starting this month and as early as May 10. House Bill 4617 responds to the 2003 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that created a right to same-sex marriage in our state constitution.

The cardinal-archbishop pointed out that more than 123,000 citizens signed a petition supporting the amendment last fall. This was the most signatures ever certified in a ballot campaign in Massachusetts.

For more information, go to VoteOnMarriage.org.