Bp Cupich on Same Sex Marriage

Bp Cupich on Same Sex Marriage by MSW.  MGB: Delightfully refreshing.  Seattle has always had exemplary clergy and have not been careerists seeking positions in Rome and the red hats to match.  As importantly, because Washington state is in the Ninth Circuit, having civil unions that are equivalent to marriage and not recognizing marriage is not considered constitutional, so the referendum is largely a wasted effort.  If the pro-marriage side loses at the ballot box, they will win easily in federal court.  At some point, the issue will be settled nation-wide, likely along the lines of the District Court in San Francisco.  The challenge for the Church is not the possibility of the state imposing marriage equality upon them as ministers, but rather how they must respond as employers to gay civil marriages - which are no more or less immoral than purely civil heterosexual marriages - which the Church does not recognize sacramentally but seems to have no problem with as an employer.  By far the greater challenges are the desire by Catholics for change within the Church - and that includes a largely gay clergy that is likely more than willing to solemnize gay unions at the request for families - and add their voices to the drive to end celibacy so that they can marry themselves.