Hooray for Fr. Mike. Once again a shining light. Thank you, Fr. Mike. We love you.

That's really good to hear. This is the sort of thing that makes a curmudgeonly atheist leftist like myself adjust the extent of my anti-religious ire.

Finally, a Christian who actually follows Matthew 25:40.

"Up to the pastor" I think that's what I told said in a comment to the previous blog post on the matter.
:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaKpAELs-…

Fr. Whitney at St. Joseph's on Capitol Hill has made the same move, even more directly. The following is posted on their website - "You may have heard about a petition drive concerning Referendum 74, which will be gathering signatures at a number of parishes in Seattle. Please be aware that Fr. Whitney has decided that no petitioning will be permitted anywhere on the campus of St. Joseph. Please contact Fr. Whitney with any concerns. I suspect St. Mary's will also do the same. Hopeful many other pastors & parishes will follow this lead!

I hope more pastors do this sort of thing - http://ncronline.org/news/people/invitat…

Heck, maybe we should invite the Archbishop to lunch ourselves...

Is it not illegal for churches to circulate political petitions, or is it just illegal for them to advocate a certain position?

Not that it's enforced, anyway...

+1 to @10 if anything happens to this guy there should be an immediate attempt to remove tax exempt status from what is obviously a political group and not a religion.

@10, @11 Circulating petitions for, donating money towards, endorsing or provide support for an initiative or referendum apparently is considered advocating for legislation, which non-profits are allowed to do. The main thing they can't do politically is to endorse or give money to candidates for public office. Sucks, but that's the current situation.

I am not surprised by this story. The Catholic laity has long been supportive of LGBT civil rights including marriage equality. While the Bishop may be taking a hard line, it is increasingly clear that parishioners—LGBT and straight—are talking to their parish priests and their priests are listening. We must encourage people to share their stories about why marriage equality is important with their clergy. And we must recognize that many faith traditions are already leaders in support of marriage equality, others are in transition and still others are deeply divided but increasingly are showing sensitivity to the reality that there are LGBT people among their faithful.

Hooray to Fr. Ryan for honoring the example of Christ.

Revoke tax exempt status for religious institutions.

Amen.

Thank you Fr. Ryan, for doing what I think our Lord would do.
Christ came to heal the wounded and bring us together in love, not cause more hurt and despair. !
Everyone is invited to St. Joe's. We are be Body of Christ !!

I, too, feel I was somewhat misquoted. I was asked if it would be problematic for priests to publically speak out in support of Referendum 74. I do believe the Church hierarchy would find this problematic. However, I was NOT asked what would happen if priests decided not to gather signatures in their parishes. I believe the Archbishop when he said that it was up to individual pastors to decide whether or not to collect signatures, and I do NOT believe that pastors who choose not to collect these would be silenced.

I, too, feel I was misquoted. I was NOT asked what would happen if pastors chose not to gather signatures at their parishes. I believe the Archbishop when he said he would leave it up to invidual pastors to decide on this, and that the Archbishop will honor their decision.

I was asked what would happen if priests spoke out publically in support of Referendum 74. I do suspect they would be silenced for doing this.

Thank you Father Michael. We all love you so much and you've brought so much life and support to our lives at A Terrible Beauty and mine personally. Your wisdom and unconditional love for people shines in my heart everyday. I love you, Jenna

What a wonderful day it is when the clergy are finally willing to take a stand on marriage equality, let's hope the Pope and bishops will follow suit and join the community of believers they call sheep.

Soldier of Christ

My parish St. Patrick's in North Capitol Hill is also not participating. Being an out member of the parish and showing up each Sunday puts a face on who we are - A out gay couple with two teenage children 14 & 18. Thus, my parish is choosing to vote no on collection of signatures.

Keeping the doors of Christ open to all. D. Dirk Stanley. Message from father Pat of St. Pats below:

A message from Fr. Pat:
As you may have read in the media, the Archbishop is encouraging support of Referendum 74 by allowing the collection of signatures in parishes. However he is giving each pastor permission to decided whether to allow the collection in their own parish. For pastoral reasons, we are not inviting anyone to collect signatures at St. Patrick’s. Given the make-up of St. Patrick’s, we do not believe that this would be pastorally advisable. We note that Fr. Ryan at the Cathedral has made a similar decision.

My parish St. Patrick's in North Capitol Hill is also not participating. Being an out member of the parish and showing up each Sunday puts a face on who we are - A out gay couple with two teenage children 14 & 18. Thus, my parish is choosing to vote no on collection of signatures.

Keeping the doors of Christ open to all. D. Dirk Stanley. Message from father Pat of St. Pats below:

A message from Fr. Pat:
As you may have read in the media, the Archbishop is encouraging support of Referendum 74 by allowing the collection of signatures in parishes. However he is giving each pastor permission to decided whether to allow the collection in their own parish. For pastoral reasons, we are not inviting anyone to collect signatures at St. Patrick’s. Given the make-up of St. Patrick’s, we do not believe that this would be pastorally advisable. We note that Fr. Ryan at the Cathedral has made a similar decision.

Fr. Ryan, Fr. Clark and other priests truly en-courage us to try to follow Christ and his teaching, his love of all men and women and children as sons and daughters of God. Discerning the Christian way to live and to love sometimes, perhaps often, demanding and difficult. We need companions on that way, not judges and law enforcers. Thank the Lord for fellow-pilgrims like Fr. Ryan and Fr. Clark. May their fellow clergy also find encouragement.

How sad. Neither the Catholic Church nor the local Archdiocese is anything but supportive of individual GLBTs, but like any sinner, they are obligated to love the sinner and condemn the sin. In that regard, Father Ryan has failed. I recommend those Christians in favor of Gay Marriages review the seven deadly sins. God has given us healthy appetites to provide for our bodies well being and proper function. When we become obsessed with one or more of these appetites, to the point where the appetite becomes the end rather than the means to a proper end, we have succumbed to one of the 7 deadly sins. So that when we eat just for the pleasure of eating rather than to give our body energy, we become obese, succumbing to gluttony. When making money becomes the end and we become hoarders, we succumb to greed. When sex is no longer for pro-creation but for self-satisfaction of the libido, we are guilty of lust. Although gay sex (lust) is no more a sin than greed, sloth, gluttony, pride, anger or envy, these poor priests do their congregations a disservice by giving the impression that it is not a sin, and they fail in their vows as Catholic Priests. Though none of the deadly sins should be illegal, we do the individuals of our society significant damage by encouraging these sins. Declaring gay unions to be a marriage does just that.

The priest who is not teaching about the evil of pride, is he still a priest?