The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts today condemned the Massachusetts Legislature for refusing to allow the citizens of the Commonwealth to vote on a constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The initiative petition proposing the amendment received the signatures of more than 170,000 voters, the largest number in the history of the state.
The votes of at least one quarter of two successive legislatures were required to placed the measure on the ballot for ratification by the people. On January 2nd, sixty two representatives and senators from the outgoing 2005-2007 legislature voted to move the amendment forward. In today’s Constitutional Convention, the amendment failed when only forty five members of the General Court voted in favor of it.
The Catholic Action League called today’s vote “a wretched example of the cowardice and corruption of the Massachusetts Legislature, the power of money, the scorn Bay State elites have for both the democratic process and traditional values, and, of course, the totalitarian instincts and utilitarian morality of a homosexual movement that has nothing but contempt for the beliefs of everyone but themselves.”
Catholic Action League Executive Director C.J. Doyle stated: “Today, the Massachusetts Legislature trashed the signatures of 170,000 citizens and disenfranchised nearly 4 million voters by refusing to place the marriage amendment on the ballot. Anyone above the age of reason understands that the switch of 12 legislative votes in the last few days had nothing to do with principles, and everything to do with the paychecks, pensions and per diems of salaried careerists who were pressured, threatened, enticed, intimidated and cajoled by everyone from the Governor to the legislative leadership to the congressional delegation and to national figures of Democratic Party politics. In a parliamentary system, a matter of conscience would be a ‘free vote’, without instruction from party whips. This afternoon’s vote on Beacon Hill was the most carefully managed in memory.”
“Nor should we overlook months of lobbying by well-funded homosexual organizations supported by big business, organized labor, and much of the media. It is remarkable that forty five legislators had the courage to withstand this. Supporters of traditional marriage ought to resume an initiative petition drive, but must first punish the legislators who betrayed them come the 2008 elections.”