Public Law, Chapter 82 was signed into law by Governor John E. Baldacci on May 6, 2009. In doing so, Maine joined a small but growing number of states that afford homosexual and lesbian couples the same right to marry as heterosexual couples. As the governor explained in a recent interview with the National Catholic Reporter, "The new law does not force any religion to recognize a marriage that falls outside of its beliefs. It does not require the church to perform any ceremony with which it disagrees."

Not surprisingly, opponents of the marriage equality quickly organized and were able to the public veto measure on this year's ballot (In Maine an enacted piece of legislation can be vetoed by popular referendum; in order to put such a measure on the ballot petitioners must have a required number of valid signatures at least equal to ten percent of the number of popular votes the current governor received in the most recent election).

Among those actively organizing support of a veto is neocon Robert P. George's National Organization for Marriage and the Knights of Columbus. Needles to say, the Catholic Right is well represented in this endeavor.

Enter into the fray Richard J. Malone, bishop for the Diocese of Portland. His diocese encompasses the entire state of Maine. Therein, reside approximately 198,200 Catholics. That roughly translates into fifteen percent of the state's estimated population of 1,322,000. Despite this disparity in religious representation Bishop Malone is, in effect, attempting to replace secular morality with Catholic orthodoxy.

And as NCR reported in its October 23, 2009 edition the good bishop has spared no expense in this fight:

Besides spearheading a parish-based petition signature drive, assisted by local and national socially conservative groups, Malone also padded church bulletins with anti-gay marriage messages -- on six consecutive Sundays. He required that pastors throughout the diocese preach on traditional marriage.

Malone has produced a DVD, in which he stars, explaining why marriage matters, and directed that it be shown in all parishes. (See Marriage: What the church teaches.)
Last month, Malone called for a second collection to be taken up during Sunday Masses, with proceeds going to Stand for Marriage, the organization leading the repeal effort.
The second collection netted $86,000. In total, the Portland diocese has given $550,000 to the effort to repeal the same-sex marriage legislation.

What Bishop Malone may not have counted on was that members of his own flock would oppose him. Again, as NCR reported:

Particularly irksome for some Maine Catholics -- estimated at 15 to 16 percent of the population -- is Malone's insistence "that it is the doctrine of the Catholic church -- not my personal opinion -- that all Catholics are obligated to oppose legal recognition of same-sex marriage." He said that in a September pastoral letter, quoting Pope Benedict XVI.
"Where does that come from?" asked William H. Slavick of Portland, a retired college professor. "It's my duty to follow my informed conscience" and respecting "pluralistic considerations in the United States."
Slavick, a long-time coordinator of the Pax Christi Maine chapter, favors keeping the civil marriage law, saying that the church is wrong to try to impose a Catholic view of marriage on society.

And it should be noted that Governor Baldacci, who signed Public Law, Chapter 82 into law is a church-going Roman Catholic.

Also standing up to the neo-Carlist bishop on the issue of for marriage equality is the organization Catholics for Marriage Equality. But beyond that issue, they understand that they are speaking out not just for the right to choose a marriage partner, but for the far greater issue of preserving our pluralistic society.

Consider the recorded testimony given in support of the legislation given by one of its members, attorney Anne Underwood.

At the outset she delineates the difference between religious and secular law.

As a practicing Roman Catholic and attorney, I thank each of you for your daily work on behalf of our democratic form of government. A government based not on Halachah (Jewish), Shari' a (Islamic), or Canon Law (Roman Catholic), but on Civil Law.  

Our civil law draws many core values --  respect for life, the dignity of persons,  the integrity of covenant and contract -- from each religious tradition, but it does not prefer the dogma or doctrinal demands of any. This restraint your legislative predecessors enshrined in the Establishment and Free Exercise clauses of the First Amendment.

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Underwood then unmistakably echoes Jefferson's and Madison's concerns about entangling church and state:

No faith community can sanctify civil law for its adherents; and no arm of the government can enforce the dogma of any faith community for its citizens. Constitutionally, you as legislators cannot interfere with Bishop Malone's ecclesiastical decisions regarding my standing in the Catholic Church. Constitutionally, Bishop Malone cannot interfere with your
actions regarding my marital status in the State of Maine.

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Finally by analogy and personal example, she illustrates the limits of a subjective theology in American society:

My marriage, valid in the State of Maine, is not approved under the doctrine of the Catholic Church. And there is nothing you can or should do to change Church doctrine. For me and the thousands of other Maine Catholics who have lived in State-licensed marriages that our Church does not approve, our relationship with the Church is between us and our Church.  You as legislators have conferred the benefits and responsibilities of our heterosexual marriages through civil law without regard for Canon law.

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Underwood, in devastating manner, demonstrated Bishop Malone's untenable argument against substituting Catholic orthodoxy - or any particular orthodoxy -- for a shared secular society.

Catholics for Marriage Equality is just one of several emerging Catholic organizations that are doing what is necessary to stand up for religious pluralism -- and against those who want to impose the most unyielding forms of traditionalist Catholic theology on everyone else -- including American Catholics.

And for that, they should be applauded.