“Gov. backs same-sex marriage” (CR, July 28) did not challenge his claim that his Catholic school education allowed him to define the difference between a “ceremony in a courthouse and a sacrament as defined by organized religion.” Gov. Martin J. O’Malley appears to be not interested in what the citizens or God want. It was the voice of the people, raised in moral outrage, that defeated the bill the last time.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses how the authority of a government comes from God to further the common good. The issue is the term “marriage,” which Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien’s column in the same issue addressed. The Christian concept of marriage is a threat to evil. Marriage is an exclusive bond of love between two persons. The only way a same-sex couple can be fecund is by bringing in others of the opposite sex into the relationship. That is not a marriage. The discussion of the “Our Father” at the end of the Catechism is relevant to the discussion of same-sex marriage.