Boston Archdiocese launches 'defense of marriage' info sessions

Published: 2004-01-29

MARLBOROUGH, Mass. (CNS) -- Beginning an effort they hope will mobilize Catholics to contact their legislators in defense of traditional marriage, Catholic lay people and clergy fanned out throughout the Archdiocese of Boston Jan. 26 for the first in a series of presentations on the issue of same-sex marriage. The Catholic Defense of Marriage Information Meetings, designed to educate Catholics on the issue of same-sex marriage, were scheduled to be held in three or four different parishes most weeknights through Feb. 4. At each meeting, three volunteers -- a priest and two lay people -- address the various aspects of the Goodridge vs. Department of Public Health decision that legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Prominent Boston Catholics involved in the effort include Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, theologian Father Romanus Cessario, Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences member Kevin Ryan and Father John Farren, rector of St. John's Seminary. Each parish in the archdiocese has been asked to send a least two representatives to the information meeting in their vicariate. The representatives will then transmit what they have learned to their own parishes at Masses the following weekend.

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