Source: Boston.com
Governor Romney's intent to exempt Catholic Charities from state discrimination laws could set his state back almost 50 years and further blur the line between church and state.
GOVERNOR ROMNEY'S moves to the right, as he explores a campaign for national office, have been well noted. But now, if he carries out his intention to file legislation exempting Catholic Charities from state discrimination laws, he will be taking a giant step backward--46 years backward.
It was in 1960 that John F. Kennedy confronted anti-Catholic bias in a famous speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Alliance. "I believe in an America...where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the pope, the National Council of Churches, or any other ecclesiastical source," he said. "I do not speak for my church on public matters, and the Church does not speak for me."
This ringing embrace of church-state separation, confirmed by Kennedy's election, settled the issue once and for all, one hoped. Now Romney is out to turn it on its head.
Legislative leaders say they will block Romney's retreat. They deserve support.
The underlying problem is clear. The Vatican believes homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered." Massachusetts Catholic bishops, as a result, have prohibited Catholic Charities from allowing same-sex couples to adopt children the charity wants to place. But state law prohibits discrimination, including that against homosexuals. Since the automatic rejection of same-sex couples would obviously be discriminatory, Catholic Charities has decided to abandon its founding mission of facilitating adoptions, one that it has carried out to the great benefit of the public for over a century.
So we have a charity refusing to do adoptions to same sex couples because of their bias, and we have a governor who is basically standing behind them. I guess Romney's oath to help all of his state's citizens fell a bit short somewhere.
Nearly a half-century ago, John Kennedy challenged bias against the Catholic Church. Now, Romney is defending bias from the Catholic Church. Romney works for all the people of Massachusetts. It is a shame to see him doing exactly what Kennedy forswore nearly a half-century ago: accepting instructions on public policy from the pope.
So the pope dictates policy here in America now? When did we vote him in to Congress or the White House?
Tags: [Governor Romney], [Catholic Charities], [Massachusetts], [discrimination against same-sex couples in adoption], [church-state separation]
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