Learning From Our Catholic Heroes How To Be Catholic
by Fr. Roger J. Landry - June 22, 2007
Today is the feast of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, two English martyrs who went to their death in 1535 in defense of the truth about marriage. Their example provides a fitting backdrop to evaluate the actions of Massachusetts Catholics with respect to the failure to defend the truth about marriage at last week's Constitutional Convention.
The layman More and the bishop Fisher were imprisoned and eventually beheaded because they refused to assent to the lie about marriage King Henry VIII was trying to force every English subject to affirm by oath. Most English subjects capitulated, as did, shamefully, most clerics, but More and Fisher refused. Both were willing to be killed rather than betray Christ and his teaching about marriage. Fisher, like a modern day John the Baptist, lost his head for boldly pointing out that it was not lawful for Henry to marry Anne Boleyn (see Mk 6:18). More, Henry's former chancellor, in order to protect his family tried to remain silent, but once he received his death sentence, spoke plainly. The patron saint of lawyers and politicians went to the axe-wielding executioner famously stating that he was the king's good servant, but God's first.
The June 14th defeat of the marriage protection amendment, and the failure to garner the support of 25% of state legislators, indicate how radical our state's political leadership class is in comparison to the general population, as well as how little politicians respect the rights of those who voted for them to vote on something as important as the meaning of marriage. But the most ignoble aspect of the defeat was the massive betrayals by Catholics — certainly legislators, but also indirectly voters and clergy — that made such a setback possible. Many were simply not God's good servants at all.
As is well-known, the Massachusetts legislature is dominated by Roman Catholics: the State Senate President, the Speaker of the House, the House Majority Leader, and a solid majority of the members all call themselves Catholic. Yet the Senate President and the Speaker were two of the biggest opponents of the amendment, and the vast majority of Catholic legislators voted against it. One, of course, does not have to be Catholic to recognize that marriage is the union of a man and a woman, or to be religious to grasp the harm that would come to society and especially to children through same-sex unions. Catholics, however, are informed not just by reason but by Revelation, and in the latter, God removes any possible doubt about the meaning of marriage and the moral qualification of same-sex sexual relationships. Nevertheless, in their vote last Thursday, most Catholic lawmakers on Beacon Hill ignored both faith and reason and seemed to fear and want to please the gay lobby more than they feared and sought to please God.
How is it that in a legislature dominated by Catholics, fewer than one-quarter would vote in accord with what both reason and revelation teach marriage is, and allow the citizenry to have their say? How is it possible that a state where half the population is Catholic is the only one with gay marriage?
Jesus calls his followers to be the salt of the earth — to prevent society from moral corruption — but it's hard to deny after this debacle that in Massachusetts our salt has lost its saltiness. Christ counts on us to be the light of the world, but it's undeniable that many Catholics in our Commonwealth have hidden the light of his teaching about love, marriage, sex and family under a bushel basket, rather than setting it proudly on a stand to enlighten others. The Lord challenges us to leaven society through our preaching and living of the Gospel, but rather than Catholics' altering society for the better, it seems that society has been changing Catholics for the worse (Mt 5:13-16; 13:33; 16:11).
This betrayal of our mission to be salt, light and leaven cannot be ascribed solely to the unfaithfulness of certain Catholic legislators. Most of them, after all, are elected and re-elected by heavily Catholic districts, where Catholic voters fail to hold them accountable to votes that reason and faith both show as contrary to the good of the human person. Their behavior on June 14th is a clear indication that they did not think that their Catholic constituents would care about their vote as much as the gay lobby would in the next election.
In light of St. John Fisher's example, however, we must also candidly admit the responsibility of Catholic clergy as a whole for failing adequately to inform the consciences of the faithful by passing on the truths of the faith and the duties that flow from them. With regard to the issue of same-sex marriage, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by the future Pope Benedict XVI, taught unequivocally in 2003 that before legislation in favor of same-sex unions, "the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral." To say "gravely immoral" means that if a Catholic legislator with deliberate consent votes in favor of same-sex marriage, it is a mortal sin, which would cut off the person's communion with Christ and endanger the person's eternal salvation. The same document teaches that "clear and emphatic opposition" to same-sex unions is a moral duty for all Catholic citizens.
It can legitimately be asked, however, how many Catholics have heard these truths from their clergy. In some places, legislators and voters who support same-sex marriage — not to mention those who favor abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, cloning, xenophobia toward immigrants, vengeance toward criminals or euthanasia — have simply not been called upon to convert, in any way. While not everyone will be persuaded, mentioning among other things the truth that one would be committing a mortal sin and possibly squandering heaven might be sufficient to make those who have true Catholic faith reconsider. On the other hand, when nothing is mentioned, or when even those who notoriously depart from Church teaching on faith and morals in their public actions seem to suffer no consequences, it's no surprise that many will continue to act contrary to the faith. And that makes possible the shameful results we all saw on June 14th.
St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher show laity and clergy, respectively, another way. As we learn the lessons of June 14th and regroup to persevere with Christ in the defense of marriage, we invoke their example and their intercession. They remind us by their glorious deaths how important marriage is in God's plan. They teach us by their heroic lives how to be good servants of others through being God's good servants first. In short, they show all of us how to be faithful Catholics.
Father Roger J. Landry is pastor of St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford, MA and Executive Editor of The Anchor, the weekly newspaper of the Diocese of Fall River.
