Legislators who stepped up (or down, as the case may be)

Today’s Boston Globe has as its lead editorial a brief exhortation, Legislators who stepped up [HERE], commending the Massachusetts legislators who voted this past week to repeal the 1913 statute that has barred out-of-state homosexual couples from marrying in Massachusetts and then returning to their home state jurisdiction in the hope of having their Massachusetts same-sex marriage recognized in a place that does not permit this. The Globe heaped praise on the legislators who voted “yes” in favor of the repeal. Governor Deval Patrick quickly signed the legislative repeal noting that with the repeal, “All people come before their governments as equals.” I hasten to add some agreement and some disagreement with this position: in some things yes, they are equal, but in other matters no—especially when reason, common sense, and irrefutable facts demonstrate that “equality” is impossible. Michael Jordan and I both love basketball, but I doubt that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will deem the two of us “equal” when it comes to our respective claims concerning the ability to play the game.

The Globe editorial took passing notice of opposition to the repeal from “social conservatives”. I wonder if the paper’s editorial board members who authored this congratulatory opinion would consider the legislators who voted “no,” that is, against the repeal, to be “social conservatives.” If a web log developing Catholic Legal Theory is a place to consider what is it that Catholic legislators should do and not do in their official capacities (something that members of MOJ have addressed from time to time), I would offer an opinion that the legislators voting “no” were the members of the General Court (the legislature) who, in fact, stepped up. It is clear that many of the legislators who voted “yes” consider themselves Catholic. But it was those Catholics, and other legislators who are not Catholic, who voted “no” who understand well the wise counsel of Pope John Paul II when he stated that “the value of democracy stands or falls with the values which it embodies and promotes.” [Evangelium Vitae, N. 70]

In my opinion, the “no” votes belong in the circle of those who upheld the values crucial to democracy. I fear that those who cast “yes” votes have imperiled the values of “democracy” insofar as it exists in Massachusetts and will lead us further along a road to the diminishment of values crucial not only to democracy but to the society that it should preserve and protect.

RJA sj