Thank you, Msgr Sal Pilato for some clarity on recent issues. Here is the outline of a homily that he gave today.

Outline of this morning's homily given at two Masses:
XIII Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C 
(Aftermath of SCOTUS Gay “Marriage” Decisions) 

I. If I were new here I wouldn’t give this homily. I believe you need to get to know a priest before we can effectively cover controversial issues. So if you are new to the parish or visiting and are tempted to walk out on this homily please wait until the end of the homily before you do. Listen to the whole thing before you make your decision. Also know it can be difficult to cover sensitive topics in 12 minutes and I might leave a part out that could lead to greater clarity or less misunderstanding so please forgive me if I do.

II. Today’s 2nd Reading from Galatians 5 speaks of true freedom and the conflict with the flesh. The Collect of the Mass speaks of “children of light,” the “darkness of error” and the “bright light of truth.”

III. Two Fridays ago we began “Fortnight for Freedom”
a. Like last year we began on the Feast of Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More and end on the 4th of July.
b. The American Bishops have asked Catholics to use the Fortnight to educate ourselves about our religious freedoms and to pray and work for an end to the government’s encroachment upon these freedoms.
c. Encroachment on these freedoms? 4 current examples:

i. First – the Obama Administration’s “HHS Mandate”
1. Named after the Health and Human Services Department mandate which was announced in January 2012 and which goes into effect this summer - August 2013
2. Requires that all employers in their employee’s insurance pay for contraception, sterilization and abortifacients. 
3. Since these three things are taught by the Church to be intrinsically evil and since we can never cooperate in intrinsic evil, the Church cannot pay for these things.
4. After the uproar last year the Administration came up with a “compromise” – requiring the insurance companies rather than the employers to pay for these. Of course this was a slight of hand, smoke and mirrors, the insurance companies would pass the cost down to the employers. They wouldn’t pay for this and lose money on their insurance programs.

ii. Second, SB 131 – a bill working its way through the California legislature right now that would again lift the statute of limitations on Churches and other private groups but not the public schools, and allow new civil (not criminal) lawsuits seeking financial damages for cases of child abuse.
1. When this happened 10 years ago, cases came forward of accusations going as far back as the 1930’s. Many of these cases involved people who were long dead and could not defend themselves.
2. Yes there were horrific cases of abuse. All known abusers have been removed from the clergy. Today our Safeguard the Children education programs are second to none in the number of young people and adults that are certified and re-certified in them.
3. Yet over the last ten years California dioceses had the highest settlement rates in the US because of this lifting of the statute of limitations – billions and billions of dollars most of which went to attorneys. One law firm (Anderson) made $16 million.
4. Many in the Church believe that if this bill passes it could lead to the bankruptcy of the 12 dioceses in California and the selling of many parishes and schools.
5. The bill conveniently exempts the public schools from being included even though more child abuse has taken place there than in the Church.

iii. Third, President Obama’s very negative comments about Catholic schools while speaking in Northern Ireland two weeks ago:
1. “If towns remain divided—if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden—that too encourages division and discourages cooperation.”
2. He has never criticized Jewish or Muslim schools for being separate.
3. When he gave the commencement address at Morehouse last month he did not criticize historic black colleges for being separate.
4. Some say he was referring to a different situation in Northern Ireland but the Irish bishops responded by saying that he was using an old stereotype that is not fair or accurate.

iv. Fourth, the two decisions of the Supreme Court this week regarding so-called Gay “Marriage”
1. One decision invalidated part of the Federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) signed in the 90’s by President Clinton
2. The other decision refused to make a judgment on California’s Proposition 8 passed by 7 million California voters which defined marriage as between one man and one woman. This decision said that the supporters of this amendment to the California constitution lacked standing because the Governor or State Attorney General refused to defend the law passed by the people. 
3. This refusal to make a judgment has allowed these “marriages” to begin again just this last Friday.
4. The Church and the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches the importance of compassion in ministering to those with same sex attraction. Most would tell you that they have had priests in the confessional who were kind and understanding.
5. But the gay “marriage” debate goes over the top when proponents compare it to the civil rights movement or the abolition movement. They are over the top when they compare the lack of gay marriage to slavery and segregation.
6. These comparisons are insulting to those who actually were slaves or who were segregated in the old South. These comparisons are insulting to those who fought for civil rights in the 1960’s or fought for women’s suffrage in the early 1900’s.
7. In many states including California, gays have all the privileges of marriage when they enter into domestic partnerships. There is only one thing missing - a word - marriage. This doesn’t come close to a comparison to slavery or segregation.

IV. Effects of this progression of aggression against the Church
a. The Church in the US has already removed itself from the ministry of adoption agencies because many states have required that all agencies include gay couples in their placements. The Church cannot do this.
b. Because Church hospitals cannot offer abortion, contraception or sterilization we are seeing hostility on the part of the government toward Catholic hospitals.
c. Proposed legislation in some states and at the federal level would require all hospitals to offer these so called services.
d. Proposed legislation would require all medical students to learn how to perform an abortion. 
e. Catholic medical students could not take such courses and Catholic university medical schools could not offer such courses.
f. While the President has said that this week’s Supreme Court decisions regarding marriage will not affect Churches for conscience reasons there is already talk on the part of the government in requiring military chaplains to perform gay “marriages” at chapels on military bases. Our Catholic chaplains cannot do this. If required they will have to leave the military.

V. Our country has moved away from having standards toward accommodating people’s feelings.
a. Law has always been based on standards of behavior not people’s feelings.
b. What we are seeing in this country is a diabolical disorientation.
c. We are seeing a confusion or reversal between light and darkness.
d. We are being accused of being bigoted and evil for holding to standards of behavior that are thousands of years old.

VI. A few (3) quotes – from a Jewish woman, a Catholic bishop and a Protestant general:
a. “The Supreme Court has decreed that there is no possible rationale beyond hatefulness to oppose changing the ancient institution of marriage. This sets the stage for nearly all religious institutions to be considered agents of bigotry. As many in the pro-marriage coalition have been arguing for two decades, the case for traditional marriage is not about hostility to homosexuality. It's about staunching the decay of the institution that undergirds everything else in our society. To enshrine same sex marriage is to endorse the idea of marriage as adult fulfillment. Marriage is much more than that.” -Mona Charen
b. “If you choose to offend God, successful you may be, honored you may be, rich you may be, praised by the world you may be, “broadminded” and “progressive” you may be, alive to public opinion and to the new morals of the day you may be, but you will never know how much you have failed, as Barabbas never knew how much he failed the day of his success. But you will be dead! Dead to the life of Christ! Dead to the love of God! Dead to the ageless peacefulness of eternity! . . . “Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong even if everybody is wrong. Right is right even if nobody is right.” - Archbishop Fulton Sheen
c. "History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster." -General Douglas MacArthur

VII. Conclusion
a. Fortnight for Freedom began with the Feast of Sts. John Fisher and Thomas More.
b. Both Saints were beheaded by King Henry VIII for not taking the Oath of Supremacy which acknowledged that the King was the head of the Church in England. Of all of the Catholic bishops of England St. John Fisher was the only one to refuse. Sir Thomas More was the King’s Chancellor equivalent to his Vice President.
c. Both men took their faith very seriously.
d. Both men could not compromise their consciences to save their lives.
e. Both men did not separate their faith from their public life or day to day life.
f. Some people believe a persecution of Christians is coming soon.
g. It has been happening for years in other parts of the world especially in the Middle East. Just last week a Catholic priest in Syria was beheaded with a knife before a hundred men and young boys shouting over and over again: “God is great.”
h. Will we stand firm in our faith handed down to us from the apostles?
i. Will we stand up for our beliefs? Will we give witness to our faith?
j. Or will we compromise because it is convenient and popular?
k. God bless America! God save America!