A majority of Catholics in the US House of Representatives voted last Thursday to pass the “Respect for Marriage Act” which will redefine marriage under US law. The Act was signed into law by Catholic US president Joe Biden yesterday.
According to <a href="https://catholicvote.org/how-catholics-in-congress-voted-on-the-bill-to-redefine-marriage/">data published </a>by US-based Catholic lobby group CatholicVote, out of the 130 Catholics in the House, 89 voted to redefine marriage, while only 40 Catholics held fast to their beliefs and voted no. (One member, Rep. Kevin Brady, a Catholic Republican from Texas, did not vote.)
The “Respect for Marriage Act” repeals the “Defense of Marriage Act” (DOMA) and “requires the U.S. federal government to recognise the validity of same-sex and interracial marriages in the United States, and protects religious liberty”, according to the US government.
There are 130 Catholics serving in the House of Representatives, of which 74 are Democrats and 56 are Republicans. All Democrats voted in favour of the act along with 15 Republicans (27 per cent).
“In the House, <a href="https://catholicvote.org/how-catholics-in-congress-voted-on-the-bill-to-redefine-marriage/">89 Catholics</a> (74 Democrats and 15 Republicans) voted to redefine marriage and expose our religious organisations to a flood of lawsuits,” said Joshua Mercer, director of programming at CatholicVote.
The lobby group Catholic Vote has strongly opposed the legislation from the outset, warning members of Congress that it would result in terrible consequences for the religious freedom of Catholic individuals and institutions.
The claim that the Act “protects religious liberty” does not take into account the fact that Catholics believe that the only valid marriage is between a man and a woman.
“The act purports to defend same-sex and interracial marriages, yet neither institution is under attack, and the act adds zero new protections for same-sex marriages that the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges didn’t already provide,” <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/respect-marriage-act-advances-lefts-anti-religious-crusade-opinion-1764210">wrote CatholicVote President Brian Burch for Newsweek</a> shortly before the House vote.
“The legislation’s real effect, in addition to repealing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, will be to expose people of faith to a host of potential lawsuits from left-wing activists seeking to silence their voices. That seems to be the point.”
“This marriage law was recently rushed through both the House and the Senate during the “lame duck” session of Congress — intentionally after the November elections so that public accountability would be limited.
“The law did nothing to change same-sex “marriage” in the United States. Instead, the new law allows LGBT activists to unleash a new round of legal attacks on faith-based organisations and conscientious citizens who hold fast to the time-honored truth about marriage.
In their lobby campaign against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, Catholic Vote warned that Catholic charities, schools and businesses would be made open to attack for their beliefs. An amendment put forward by them to ensure Catholics would not be targeted was ignored by politicians.
“The most grating aspect of the so-called Respect for Marriage Act [is],” wrote Brian Burch in a statement after the vote, “that this bill will be signed into law by a man who publicly holds himself out as a ‘devout Catholic’.
“Joe Biden once ripped voters who worried that activists were aiming to change our marriage laws. Later, as vice president, he shamelessly flipped… and personally presided over a same-sex ‘wedding’.
Referring to Nancy Pelosi, Burch said: “The outgoing ‘devout Catholic’ Speaker of the House likewise called this bill a ‘glorious triumph’.”
