abe smith

Boston Globe frontpage article of Thurs the 29th, I forget? The Four Roman Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts dioceses have issued order (Letter) to all RC church pastors in Massachusetts, to preach this weekend to their congregations at all Masses, & to print notices in parish bulletins:
that ("Of course, everyone/you-all know that the Church" sic "Teaches that marriage is allowed only between one male & one female" and that pastors should urge their flocks to snow their Massachusetts legislators with messages, esp w/ personal letters, urging them to SUPPORT THE ANTI-GAY amendment now in-process, to change the Mass state Constitution. {GLOBE & others opine this razzledazzle of the Massachusetts Bishops is purposed to deflect citizens's attention from the clergy abuse scandals, which the RC sect wd like to convince everyone is now over & done w. IT ISN'T!]
[This stuff is a long way down the legislative road; indeed. The present Legislature would have to vote now, in this session, to have this qy put to a referendum; and vote again in the NEXT session of the Legislature 2 years hence again; and then the qy wd have to go on the ballot at least two & a half years from now; AND the Massachusetts voters would have to vote to effect the Constitutional Amendment thereafter.} Given the way Massachusetts Catholics feel about their hierarchs right now, and generally how they Yankees feel/act about having authority tell them what to do, the possibility seems minute that this Amendment is ever going to get to be effected.
But there it is, even so. The Gov of Texas signed a similar thing into TEXAS law yesterday or so; ...
Chances are, dont you think? that the general qy (for nationwide) about permitting "gay marriages" is going to get to the US Supremes for adjudication, eventually within the next decade or less. Be interesting to watch it.

If Catholic Bishops are so anxious to abolish the Church vs State barrier, they'd better start saving up their money to start PAYING TAXES like all the rest of the citizens & corporations.

And in the meantime, what's with CJ Supreme REHNQUIST? He altered his standard pattern markedly this week, to go w/ the "liberal" set of the Court, against his standard grouping w/ Scalia, Thomas, O'Connor.... WHY does the leopard appear to be changing his spots? Is he trying to prove that a Republican-minded Court might not be so bad after all? Will he retire before
the next election? What a HORROR it will be, if BUSH gets to appoint up to THREE new justices to the Supremes! That wd fuck-up our Country for the next even-twenty years; maybe longer. Long after GWB is out of the White House. THIS issue is really one to give you nightmares.

Jewel

Here is a link to an article about this:

Bishops eye pastors to fight gay marriage

Beetle

Has there ever been a time when the bishops had less influence or popularity than right now? Almost everybody in this area is still more likely to want to beat the bishops with hickory sticks than to listen to their backward political statements.

lpetrich

I think it would be fun to make those bishops long for the days when their predecessors kept the Bible from the rank-and-file.

Like discussing all the polygamy in the Bible.

Shake

... and incest, and murder, and rape ... point made.

Of course they're trying to shift public attention away from pedophilic priests! They learned from Clinton how to distract unwanted attention. "I did not have sexual relations ... Hey! Look at what those awful Serbs are doing over there! Let's go bomb 'em!"