Editor's Note: The following is a letter mailed to the Archbishop of Boston, and copied to The Heights.



Dear Archbishop O'Malley:



I am writing out of concern regarding the most recent actions of the Catholic Bishops on the issue of gay marriage. Although I understand the tradition of Catholic doctrine from which your position stems, I ask you to study some of the troubling patterns of the Catholic Church in relation to human rights and to carefully consider the harmful effects of the message that the Church is sending today.

Rev. Martin Rhonheimer, of Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross recently completed an analysis of the role of the Catholic Church in events leading up to the Holocaust. He concluded that the Church's official teaching led to a confusing double message that contributed to anti-Semitic feelings in Nazi Germany. The Church preached that racial persecution of Jews was wrong but civil measures to limit the 'dangerous' Jewish influence in society were legitimate. Rhonheimer states, "Equality in the natural law was not equivalent in the Church's eyes to equality in the civil law." This mixed message made it difficult for Catholics to develop a clear understanding of the need to oppose the Jewish policy and thus paved the way for later Nazi atrocities. "It was the Church's own attitude toward the Jews that had made it difficult, if not impossible, to mobilize Christian consciences."

This chilling message is eerily similar to the one that is being delivered by the Catholic Church today in claiming that gay marriage will be damaging to humanity. It is not gay marriage that threatens humanity but messages of hatred and exclusion, especially those cloaked under the veil of 'morality'. It is ironic that Jewish leaders have actually taken a more 'Christian' position on the gay marriage issue than the Catholic Church. The Jewish Community Relations Council voted in favor of same-sex marriage, rightly noting that, "discrimination against one group leads to discrimination against all." The Jewish people have first-hand knowledge of where the path of discrimination can lead. We must remember that homosexuals were sent to Auschwitz along with the Jews.

Continued...

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