Manchester — (for news story, see “Gay marriage bill signed into law in New Hampshire“) Bishop McCormack released the following statement today:
I am deeply disappointed that the bill to legalize same sex marriage in New Hampshire was signed into law today. The new law passed our Legislature through the narrowest of margins with precipitous haste and without extensive study. The law strikes a blow to the cornerstone on which our entire civilization is built and sustained: the marriage between one man and one woman.
In a manner unlike any other relationship, the union of a husband and wife makes a unique and irreplaceable contribution to the common good of society. A man and a woman in a marriage bring children to life and model the way in which women and men live interdependently and commit, for the whole of life, to seek the good of each other. Our state has an obligation to protect the unique gift of marriage between one man and one woman.
As bishop, I will continue to teach that marriage is a faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman joined in an intimate community of life and love. This is a natural truth that has been confirmed by divine Revelation in Sacred Scripture.
As a citizen of this state, I am troubled that those who respect and treasure marriage as it has been understood for thousands of years have been marginalized while others position same sex marriage as a “civil rights” issue. Marriage and same-sex unions are essentially different realities. Upholding marriage as it has always been understood is just and neither offends the dignity nor the rights of homosexual persons. Indeed, the New Hampshire civil union law passed by the Legislature in 2007 expressly conferred the same rights offered to heterosexual couples to same-sex couples.
I pray that the citizens of this state will recognize the clear need for a constitutional amendment on marriage.
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Argent, on a Cross of Gules,
a sheaf of five arrows,
a staff surmounted by a lily,
all of the first.
The coat of arms of the Diocese of Manchester. The arms are composed of a silver (white) field upon which is displayed a red cross of the Chirstian faith. In the center is a sheaf of five arrows, an emblem taken from the seal of the “Colony of New Hampshire,” adopted in 1776. The five arrows denote the then five counties bound together in a strong union. The staff in the midst of the arrows is the symbol of Saint Joseph, titular of the Cathedral-Church in the See in Manchester.
(Description from the book, Upon This Granite, Catholicism in New Hampshire 1647-1997 by Wilfrid H. Paradis.)
