Texas Court Upholds Ban on Gay ‘Marriage’

By Peter J. Smith

DALLAS, Texas, September 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com)  – A Texas appeals court has struck down a trial court’s ruling Tuesday that the state’s ban on same-sex “marriage” violated the rights of a homosexual couple seeking a divorce. The court declared that “the natural ability to procreate” constituted the rational basis to restrict marriage to a man and a woman.

The Court of Appeals for the 5th District of Texas struck down the previous ruling that said that two homosexual plaintiffs  married in Massachusetts, identified as J.B. and H.B., had a right to a same-sex “divorce” in Texas based on the “full faith and credit clause” of the U.S. Constitution. The plaintiffs obtained a marriage license from Massachusetts in September 2006, moved to Texas in 2008, and later that year J.B. demanded a no-fault divorce.

Although the plaintiffs said they were not looking to challenge the state ban on same-sex “marriage,” the trial court judge said the state’s ban on same-sex “marriage” and the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) also violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

However, the Texas appeals court rejected those arguments, and ordered the trial court to reverse its decision, saying the standard of constitutional review for marriage was the “rational basis” test, not equal protection.

The Texas state court ruling strikes at the heart of U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling on Proposition 8. Walker ruled that Prop. 8 had no “rational basis” for excluding homosexuals from marriage, and was built on “a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples.”

The Texas court enumerated many reasons for the state having such a rational basis for restricting marriage to a man and a woman, which not only excludes same sex unions, but also polygamous ones.

“The persons singled out and favored by Texas’s marriage laws, namely opposite-sex couples, have such a distinguishing and relevant characteristic: the natural ability to procreate,” the court said.

“Thus, although a person’s sexual orientation does not affect his or her ability to contribute to society in general,” stated the decision, “it does bear on whether he or she will enter a relationship that is naturally open to procreation and thus trigger the state’s legitimate interest in child-rearing.”

The court also added that this rational basis for limiting marriage to heterosexual unions in no way concludes that homosexuals are “a suspect class.”

“Disparate treatment of different but similarly situated groups does not automatically violate equal protection.”

Furthermore, it concluded that Texas’s constitutional amendment on marriage does not “violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, a provision never before construed as a charter for restructuring the traditional institution of marriage by judicial legislation.”

The Texas state court affirmed that it was “reasonable for the state to conclude that the optimal familial setting for the raising of children is the household headed by an opposite-sex couple.”

It continued, “The state also could have rationally concluded that children are benefited by being exposed to and influenced by the beneficial and distinguishing attributes a man and a woman individually and collectively contribute to the relationship.”

Read the full decision here.

Divided Illinois Supreme Court Rejects Thomas More Society’s Request for Immediate Transfer of Parental Notice Challenge

CHICAGO (MetroCatholic) — Tuesday, August 31st, a divided Illinois Supreme Court denied a request by the Thomas More Society to transfer the legal case pending against the Illinois Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995 from the Appellate Court to the Supreme Court. Justices Robert R. Thomas and Thomas L. Kilbride dissented from the order denying the transfer.

“We’re obviously disappointed with this ruling, but we remain committed to doing everything we possibly can to bring these appeals to a speedy and positive conclusion,” said Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society. “The latest constitutional attack on this law by the American Civil Liberties Union was deemed legally meritless and tossed out of court by both a federal appeals court and a Cook County trial court, and yet the Attorney General agreed — inexplicably and without any legal basis — that the enforcement of parental notice should still be stayed, that is, suspended pending the outcome of the ACLU’s appeal.”

With the transfer motion denied, the proceedings will continue in the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, where Thomas More Society attorneys are due to file their opening appeal brief on Friday.

About the Thomas More Society
Founded in 1997, the Thomas More Society is a national public interest law firm that exists to restore respect for life in law. Based in Chicago, the Thomas More Society defends the sanctity of human life, the family and religious liberty in courtrooms across the country. The Society is a nonprofit organization wholly supported by private donations. For more information or to support the work of Thomas More Society, please visit www.thomasmoresociety.org.

Judge dismisses ‘with prejudice’ sex abuse charges against Catholic priest

Charleston, W.Va., Sep 2, 2010 / 03:08 am (CNA).- A judge in West Virginia has dismissed all charges against a Catholic priest from Cincinnati who was accused of molesting a 10-year-old boy in 1991. Attorneys for the priest, who was suspended for over a year because of the allegations, said the ruling found that the accuser had manipulated and falsified evidence.

In January a Roane County grand jury indicted Fr. Robet F. Poandl, 68, on charges of molesting the alleged victim at the Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Spencer, West Virginia, the Charleston Gazette reports.

The charges were dismissed “with prejudice,” meaning he cannot be prosecuted on the same charges in the future.

Judge David W. Nibert had ordered the accuser to disclose certain records, but the accuser never made a complete disclosure.

Anita H. Ashley, one of the priest’s two defense attorneys, said the judge decided that missing medical records “may well have been exculpatory.” In her view, the judge “basically said that the accuser had manipulated the evidence, basically that he could not trust him based on his history. He had no trust in his ability to make a fair and honest disclosure.”

“From the beginning it was clear to me that this man was innocent,” Ashley continued. “I commend the judge for making this ruling, which is clearly the right ruling.”

In a letter Fr. Poandl said he knew the accuser was “not trustworthy” and that “I had not hurt him in any way, let alone committed that terrible crime against him.”

He said that “lying” makes it harder for true crime victims to come forward and that his own honesty was strongly questioned because of “some very sad history” in the Catholic Church.

Judy Jones, Midwest associate director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) said her organization hoped the case would be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

“(I)t’s important that suspected child predators not walk free because of legal technicalities,” she said in a Monday statement, according to the Charleston Gazette.

Jones said that the victim and his family are “very credible and caring.” She also called on Catholic bishops in dioceses where Poandl has served to investigate accusations against him.

Glenmary Home Missioners issued a statement on Friday saying that the priest has “never” had any other allegation against him in his 40 years as a missionary priest.

Fr. Dan Dorsey, president of Glenmary, said that the accused priest maintained his innocence since the accusation was made.

“From the outset, I and the entire Glenmary community have prayed for a just resolution. After reading Judge Nibert’s decision to dismiss, I believe a just resolution has been rendered.”

Fr. Poandl has been on administrative leave since June 9, 2009, when the initial allegation was first brought to Fr. Dorsey’s attention. He has not functioned publicly as a Catholic priest since that date.

The Glenmary Review Board will now review all the information gathered ruing the past 14 months of investigation and report to the Glenmary Executive Council. The council will then determine Fr. Poandl’s future.

“This has been a long, painful experience for everyone involved,” Father Dorsey said. “I pray that God’s love and compassion will help heal the wounds of all those who have been affected by this situation over the last 14 months.”

Lessons from California on Taxpayer Funding of Human Embryo Research

NAPA, Calif. (MetroCatholic) — Life Legal Defense Foundation, who in 2005 initiated the lawsuit People’s Advocate v. ICOC, challenging the constitutionality of the governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to fund human embryonic stem cell research (HESCR), today warned not to fall for the same rhetoric being heard from the proponents of federal funding for embryo-destructive research. LLDF makes this warning after yesterday’s request by the Obama administration before the judge — who halted the illegal funding — to allow the funding to continue while the decision is appealed. The recent decision halting funding is available at ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2009cv1575-44.

CIRM was established by voter initiative in California due in large part to proponents’ promises of cures for all Californians resulting from HESCR. To date, CIRM, or for that matter any HESCR research, has produced no cures or therapies while over 70 therapies for various diseases have been the result of non-controversial and life-affirming cord blood and adult stem cell research — stemcellresearch.org/facts/treatments.htm.

In spite of the absolute failure of HESCR and a Rasmussen Poll released on Friday, August 27, 2010, that revealed “only 33% of U.S. voters believe that taxpayer money should be spent on embryonic stem cell research” and 57% of those polled OPPOSE taxpayer funding for controversial stem cell research that requires destruction of human embryos, it looks like Congress will consider legislation to approve taxpayer funding for embryo-destructive research when the House reconvenes in September.

H.R. 4808, the legislation most recently introduced by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), has broader consequences than legislation passed by the House in prior Congresses. Pro-Life leaders oppose H.R. 4808 because it directs federal funds to embryo-destructive research and unlike prior bills passed by Congress, provides a basis for taxpayer funding for research on stem cells taken from cloned embryos and embryos created solely for the purpose of destruction.

Perhaps Americans who oppose federal funding of embryo-destructive research have watched the waste of taxpayer funds in California appropriated to CIRM. CIRM funding has been used largely for kingdom building among HESCR proponents. Funds have also been used to advance HESCR rhetoric by characterizing it as science education in government schools and colleges. An analysis of how CIRM has spent millions of dollars of the California taxpayers’ hard-earned cash under the guise of “cures for all” that proponents promised would result from embryo destructive research is available at lldf.org/articles/stemcell.

Life Legal Defense Foundation was established in 1989, and is a non-profit organization composed of attorneys and other concerned citizens, committed to the sanctity of human life. For more information, call Dana Cody at 707.337.6889.

‘We will bury Katrina,’ New Orleans archbishop declares on fifth anniversary

New Orleans, LA (CNA).- Five years after the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Archbishop of New Orleans Gregory Aymond remembered the dead and thanked those who have helped recovery work. He noted that the symbolic funeral residents held for Katrina shows that it is time “to let her go.”

“Five years ago Katrina, the unwelcomed guest, did ravage on our city and left incredible destruction,” the archbishop said in a video posted on August 29 at the archdiocese’s website.

“We stand here five years later in a spirit of hope and gratitude, with hope for those who have died. We cannot forget the hundreds who died. We commend them to God’s kingdom and ask God’s blessings on their families as they grieve.”

“On Saturday morning we will bury Katrina,” said the archbishop. “We will have a jazz funeral. We’re hoping she doesn’t resurrect. It is a very symbolic gesture … that it is time to let her go. But we must move on to hope and to the future.”

The archbishop expanded on his remarks in a Sunday reflection.

“It would be easy to allow those feelings of confusion, anxiety, and despair from five years ago to creep back into our heads and spirits, but today, we must ask God to help us to rise above those feelings and allow our loving God to replace them with renewed feelings of faith and hope,” he commented.

Acknowledging that he cannot fully understand the emotions of Katrina’s victims because he was not living in New Orleans at the time of the disaster, he said that the strength of people is “amazing.”

“I am constantly inspired by the stories of those who have rebuilt and those who found solace in their faith and in love of God, family and neighbor. This is what makes New Orleans special. Your faith in God inspires me!”

“There is tremendous hope here,” he added in his video.

He pledged help from the Catholic Church to those who are still rebuilding.

“I promise to do all within our means to help you though your pain and your struggles and to be the heart of Jesus Christ to you in your time of need,” he told the disaster’s victims. “We must not forget Katrina, but must use those experiences to grow and strengthen our families and communities so that we may be an example of God’s hope to our neighbors and the rest of the country.”

In the video, the archbishop also praised the “incredible work” of Catholic charities and reported that the organization had helped provide over $55 million in aid to the hurricane’s victims. He thanked other Catholic bishops and Catholics of other dioceses who contributed to the recovery work.

He noted that Catholic Charities’ relief work recently faced a severe shortfall until a gift of $100,000 came from David Blossman of the Abita Brewing Company to help the relief work continue.

Archbishop Aymond also reported that Tom and Gayle Benson, owners of the New Orleans Saints football team, have recently decided to contribute to Catholic Charities’ relief work for Gulf oil spill victims.

“When we seem not to have enough, with the little bit we have and with God’s blessings, we have plenty,” the Archbishop of New Orleans said.

The archbishop has asked all parishes in the archdiocese to say a special Mass in honor of Our Lady of Prompt Succor to thank her for her prayers and to ask her intercession with Jesus for ongoing protection for the region. He also asked Catholics to join in prayer for New Orleans, asking that Our Lady’s prayers will join them more closely to Jesus

Christian Coalition of America Announces Release of 2010 Congressional Scorecards

WASHINGTON (MetroCatholic) — Christian Coalition of America announces the release of its 2010 Congressional Scorecards, rating members of Congress on their votes over the past year.

In announcing the scorecards, Coalition President Roberta Combs stated that, “When it comes to how members of Congress actually vote on critical issues, too many Americans are not aware of how their elected officials vote on bills that affect their everyday lives.”

“Our scorecards rate members of Congress on some of the most important issues that we face today. These issues are important to our families and to the conservative movement,” Combs said.

The scorecards cover a range of congressional votes, including: the debate over health care reform, taxpayer funding of abortion, spending bills, traditional marriage, free speech and the illegal immigration issue.

Members of Congress are then rated on a scale of 0 to 100, based on their votes.

The scorecards can be accessed at: www.cc.org/webform/congressional_scorecards

Christian Coalition of America is a non-partisan political organization that works to identify, educate and mobilize Christians for effective political action.

Concerned Women Applaud FCC’s Appeal of Indecency Ruling

WASHINGTON, DC (MetroCatholic) – Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requested the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reconsider its recent ruling striking down the agency’s power to regulate so-called “fleeting expletives.”  Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) CEO Penny Nance applauded the FCC’s move saying:

“We are pleased to see the FCC is standing up for families and the agency’s power to regulate indecency granted by “We the People.”  CWA’s half-million members around the country called on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski to appeal the decision and we stand with the FCC as they ask the Second Circuit to reconsider its wrongful decision.

“The previous ruling undermines decency standards which have protected children for decades, opening up the door for broadcasters to barrage our families with indecent programming.  We pray the court recognizes the very dangerous practical effect its decision will have on our culture and that it will overturn that decision.”

Concerned Women for America is the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.

Catholic bishops defend hiring rights of religious organizations

Washington D.C.,  (CNA).- The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops added its support on Wednesday to an initiative that seeks to protect religious organizations’ right to hire and maintain employees on the basis of their faith.

Over 100 leaders of various religious groups signed the letter distributed this week to all members of Congress, urging them to oppose provisions in HR 5466. The signatories to Wednesday’s letter contend that parts of the law will unfairly burden religious charities that receive federal grants, by forcing them to make staffing decisions that contradict or disregard their beliefs.

The coalition of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders includes the evangelical charity World Vision, the Salvation Army, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and the activist organization Sojourners among many others.

In their letter to Congress, they warned that developing efforts to undermine the religious identities of charities and other faith-based organizations “would be catastrophic to our efforts to serve those in need, and to all who value the protection for religious liberty.”

The letter reminded the members of Congress that the right of religious organizations to base their hiring decisions on principles of faith was specifically protected by the 1964 Civil Rights Act under President Lyndon Johnson.

Then, in 2007, the Department of Justice cited the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed into law by President Bill Clinton, as the basis for its judgment that religious charities which receive federal grants do not forfeit the right to hire on the basis of their beliefs.

The signatories to Wednesday’s letter affirmed that federal grant money may not be used for proselytism or activities of an “inherently religious” nature. However, they maintained that the matter of staffing and hiring decisions was a separate question, having to do with their essential identity and basic rights.

Anthony R. Picarello Jr., who signed the religious leaders’ letter to Congress on behalf of the USCCB as its general counsel, recalled the long history of allowing religious organizations to make staffing decisions on the basis on their foundational beliefs.

“The law has long protected the religious freedom of both the people who receive government-funded services, and the groups that provide the services – long before President Obama, and long before President Bush,” the USCCB’s general counsel commented in a statement accompanying the letter.

Richard Stearns, the president and CEO of World Vision U.S., warned that the pending house bill, along with other calls for Congress to eliminate religious hiring exemptions during its fall session, would jeopardize countless charities, “and, more importantly, the people they serve.”

“Too much is at stake,” he said, to allow charities’ hiring rights to be sacrificed for political gain. “Our nation needs religious charities. For decades, we have relied on and benefited from religious charities receiving federal grants.” Undermining such groups’ essential identity, he continued, is a step towards eliminating them entirely.

Picarello, speaking on behalf of the USCCB, agreed that both religious liberty and the welfare of millions of people are being endangered.

“Stripping away the religious hiring rights of religious service providers violates the principle or religious freedom,” he said, “and represents bad practice in the delivery of social services.”

Bishops Welcome Ruling Against Embryonic Stem Cell Funding, Urge Government to Pursue Ethical Stem Cell Research

WASHINGTON DC (MetroCatholic) – Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, welcomed the federal court injunction against the Obama administration’s funding of human embryonic stem cell research, calling the ruling a “victory for common sense and sound medical ethics.”  He said this ruling also vindicates the bishops’ reading of the Dickey amendment, the amendment approved by Congress since 1996, which prevents federal funding of research in which human embryos are harmed or destroyed.

“I hope this court decision will encourage our government to renew and expand its commitment to ethically sound avenues of stem cell research,” Cardinal DiNardo added. “These avenues are showing far more promise than destructive human embryo research in serving the needs of suffering patients.”

The full statement follows:

The preliminary injunction against the Obama administration’s funding of human embryonic stem cell research is a welcome victory for common sense and sound medical ethics.  It also vindicates a reading of Congress’s statutory language on embryo research that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has defended for more than a decade.

Each year since 1996, Congress has approved the Dickey amendment to forbid funding any “research in which” human embryos are harmed or destroyed.  This should ensure that taxpayers are not forced to fund a research project when pursuing that project requires the destruction of human life at its earliest stage.  However, beginning with a legal memo commissioned by the Clinton administration in January 1999, this law has been distorted and narrowed to allow federal funding of research that directly relies on such destruction.  As the bishops’ conference said in congressional testimony in 1999, “a mere bookkeeping distinction between funds used to destroy the embryo and funds used to work with the resultant cells is not sufficient” to comply with the law.  In the health care reform debate, as well, we have pointed out that an executive order by itself cannot change the meaning of a law passed by Congress, and that the longstanding policy against funding health plans that cover abortion is not satisfied, but circumvented, by a bookkeeping distinction that merely segregates accounts within such plans.

A task of good government is to use its funding power to direct resources where they will best serve and respect human life, not to find new ways to evade this responsibility. I hope this court decision will encourage our government to renew and expand its commitment to ethically sound avenues of stem cell research. These avenues are showing far more promise than destructive human embryo research in serving the needs of suffering patients.

Bishop Murphy Calls for New Social Contract for ‘New Things’ in Today’s Economy in Labor Day Statement

WASHINGTON DC (MetroCatholic) – —With millions unemployed and U.S. workers experiencing tragedies such as mining deaths in West Virginia and the oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Americans “must seek to protect the life and dignity of each worker in a renewed and robust economy,” said Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, New York. Bishop Murphy addressed these issues in the 2010 Labor Day Statement of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), entitled “A New ‘Social Contract’ for Today’s ‘New Things,’” which can be found online in English (www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/labor_day_2010.pdf) and Spanish (www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/labor_day_2010_spanish.pdf).

Bishop Murphy, Chairman of the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, compared the challenges faced by today’s workers to the changing society of the Industrial Revolution addressed by Pope Leo XIII in the 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum (Of New Things).

“America is undergoing a rare economic transformation, shedding jobs and testing safety nets as the nation searches for new ways to govern and grow our economy,” said Bishop Murphy. “Workers need a new ‘social contract.’” Bishop Murphy said that creating new jobs would require new investments, initiative and creativity in the economy. He also drew on the teachings of Pope Benedict XVI, which call for placing the human person at the center of economic life and emphasize the role of civil society and mediating institutions such as unions in pursing the common good.

“Workers need to have a real voice and effective protections in economic life,” said Bishop Murphy. “The market, the state, and civil society, unions and employers all have roles to play and they must be exercised in creative and fruitful interrelationships. Private action and public policies that strengthen families and reduce poverty are needed. New jobs with just wages and benefits must be created so that all workers can express their dignity through the dignity of work and are able to fulfill God’s call to us all to be co-creators. A new social contract, which begins by honoring work and workers, must be forged that ultimately focuses on the common good of the entire human family.”

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