On Friday evening, the New York State Senate passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriages with a vote of 33-29. The move to redefine the traditional and God-given meaning of marriage is disappointing and saddening.

Over the last several days, many individuals who supported the measure to give homosexuals the ‘right’ to marriage equality have begun to taunt and jeer those who stringently opposed the new law, including the Catholic Church. One report stated that the passage of the law sent a message to the Church and its bishops:

“You bunch of posturing ninnies in frocks are utterly irrelevant, and you no longer have a grip on New York!”

Well, that wasn’t very nice, now was it?

In all seriousness though, many people have misunderstood the opposition of the bishops on this matter. Their opposition to same-sex marriage does not mean that they are anti-gay; it simply means they are pro-marriage. The bishops are simply defending the beliefs of the Church, which state marriage cannot and should not be radically altered.

The bishops are stringently opposed to ALL efforts to redefine the God-given meaning of marriage. As Archbishop Timothy Dolan put it: “society and culture is at its peril if we presume to tamper with what has been…cherished through the history of civilization.” Dolan continued, describing how same-sex marriages are “not good for the common good.”

U.S. Border

Yesterday, the Florida Catholic Conference issued an action alert urging all Catholics to contact their Congressional representatives and senators in order to prevent the expansion of the E-Verify system. The bishops are urging our elected officials to oppose the expansion of E-Verify because “it will hurt both U.S. workers and the country’s already weakened economy.” Below is the full text of the action alert from the Florida Catholic Conference:

BACKGROUND: In the past decade, Congress has spent $117 billion of taxpayer dollars on immigration enforcement initiatives, yet the number of unauthorized immigrants in the country has grown to 11.2 million and the demand for foreign-born, low-skilled labor continues. Approximately 70 percent of the unauthorized population is in the U.S. labor force, and each year another 300,000 to 400,000 unauthorized immigrants enter the country. Our bishops have been consistent in calling for comprehensive immigration reform.

Some in Congress are now supporting the mandatory use of E-Verify by all 6 million U.S. employers. E-Verify is a largely voluntary program which allows employers to electronically verify workers’ employment eligibility with government databases. Due to well-documented flaws in the databases upon which it relies, E-Verify does not detect over half of the undocumented workers in the system, yet results in false positives for thousands of American workers.

Source: SkyNews

Over recent days and weeks, the conflict in Libya has been further escalating and continues to make headlines throughout the world. It is truly heartbreaking to witness the destruction of a people’s hopes for freedom.

Stories of atrocities against the rights and dignity of human beings have been steadily emerging from within Libya. Leaders from throughout the world have voiced their condemnation of those acts of violence and have urged the United Nations to intervene. Late last week, the United Nations voted on and approved Resolution 1973, which has given the United States, France, Great Britain, and other world powers the approval to use military force in order to prevent further atrocities.

“Operation Odyssey Dawn” began on March 19th as French aircraft began assaulting military targets around Benghazi. Following this initial response, missiles from U.S. and U.K. naval vessels began hitting targets throughout Libya. Within the next few days, aircraft from around the globe will begin participating in the operation.

On the eve of what is considered to be a symbolic vote to repeal the health care reform legislation passed last year by Congress, the bishop chairs whose committees’ work has been impacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act issued the following letter to members of the United States House of Representatives:

Source: USCCB | The above document is the official release from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and was used with permission.

Over the last several weeks and months, most of the news agencies within the United States have reported on instances of intolerance and discrimination towards members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. One of the most devastating cases was the suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi. After a video of him engaging in homosexual acts surfaced online, Tyler tragically decided to end his life by jumping from a bridge. The students who filmed the act without consent have been disciplined and charged with invasion of privacy, which in my opinion is lenient.

Many individuals are now questioning why others are so intolerant of homosexuals. Unfortunately, religious beliefs are usually marked as the leading cause. In regards to the Catholic Church, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Let’s take a look at some of the things the Church says about homosexuality.

• “Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex.