Gay marriage will be among the issues
discussed by U.S. bishops at their fall assembly in Baltimore.
The November 14 – 16 meeting of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will take place as
Maryland prepares for the second time to debate whether to legalize
gay marriage in the state.
At the meeting, the bishops will argue
that allowing two people of the same gender to marry is tantamount to
restricting religious liberty.
“The America emerging in the next
several decades is likely to be much less friendly to Christian faith
than anything in our country's past,” Archbishop Charles Chaput of
Philadelphia is quoted as saying by The
Washington Post during a speech last week at Assumption
College in Massachusetts. “It's not a question of when or if it
might happen. It's happening today.”
According to the Post, the
bishops will attempt to chart a new course they hope will protect the
church.
At the meeting, a new committee on
religious liberty will meet for the first time.
The bishops argue that religious
exemptions in laws that recognize gay and lesbian unions –
particularly in Illinois and New York – are too weak.
New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who
serves as the USCCB's president, vehemently opposed Governor Andrew
Cuomo's plan to make New York the sixth state to legalize marriage
equality.
The meeting arrives just weeks after
Daniel Avila, a policy adviser for the USCCB's Subcommittee for the
Promotion and Defense of Marriage, was forced
to step down after penning a column that blamed the devil for people
being gay.