Catholics and the ConCon: The Church's Response to the Massachusetts Gay Marriage Decision

Abstract

The Catholic Church has long been a powerful presence in Massachusetts politics. The November 2003 Supreme Judicial Court decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, in which the Court by a 4-3 majority recognized the right of same sex couples to marry, thrust the church into a battle to amend the Massachusetts Constitution to preserve the traditional definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman. The struggle came at a delicate time for the Catholic Church, which had been buffeted by the sexual abuse crisis, the changing demographics and Catholic identity of its faithful, and the painful process of closing parishes in the archdiocese of Boston. Formidable forces fought to defeat a constitutional amendment defining marriage in the traditional sense. In the contest over a constitutional amendment, the Catholic Church proved itself a weakened, altered, but resourceful advocate for its position in the public square. Yet even in a measured success the church may have planted the seeds for further erosion of its moral authority.