Virginia priest urges Catholics to reject ballot amendments threatening life and marriage
Father Paul Scalia defended the Church’s role in public life as Virginia voters prepare to decide two constitutional amendments.
Ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election, a Virginia priest is urging Catholics to reject two proposed amendments to the state constitution, warning that the measures threaten the foundations of life and marriage.
In an Oct. 20 op-ed for First Things, Father Paul Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, responded to critics who say the Church should not speak out on political issues.
“Their anger is misplaced. First, because they have things backward,” he said. “What’s at issue isn’t the Church interfering in the legitimate autonomy of the state, but the state intruding on the Church’s territory. It’s Caesar claiming authority over the things of God. That’s when God’s ministers must speak out.”
Ballot Question 1 would enshrine a right to abortion in the Virginia Constitution, while Question 2 would remove its definition of marriage as a union between one man and one woman.
Both measures are opposed by the Diocese of Arlington’s Catholics Vote No campaign, which Arlington Bishop Michael Burbidge has supported with a call for prayer and fasting throughout October, as Zeale News previously reported.
Father Scalia also criticized how the marriage amendment has been presented to voters:
“Proposed Amendment No. 2 is promoted as removing the ‘ban’ on gay marriage from the Virginia Constitution. Of course, there is no ban,” he wrote. “Gay marriage isn’t mentioned, because it’s not a thing. The state constitution bans gay marriage about as much as zoology bans unicorns. Rather, it simply defines marriage as what it is.”
He continued, “Not surprisingly, the proposed amendment’s language removes not only the imagined ban but, in effect, any definition of marriage whatsoever. Its broadening of marriage’s definition undoes the institution itself. This has always been the endgame.”
Father Scalia praised Bishop Burbidge for being “aggressive and vocal” in opposing the amendments and encouraging his priests to do the same.
That advocacy, Father Scalia argued, reflects the Church’s responsibility to teach and speak out in public life.
“If the Church cannot teach the state about the common good, then faith has little public use and might as well be confined to the inside of church buildings,” he said. “The Church’s prophetic witness reminds the state of its obligation to recognize and yield to the truth of life and marriage.”
Father Scalia described the union of mother and child and the union of man and woman as foundations of society that precede the state, arguing that the state has a duty to defend and promote them.
Father Scalia concluded by warning that the proposed amendments would deepen division in Virginia:
“Virginia calls itself a commonwealth,” he said. “But November’s ballot initiatives don’t bode well for the common good that word indicates. They only further divide us into atomized individuals, each vying for his own way, each defining his own meaning of existence. Turns out, the Church has a lot to say about the common good. Her witness and advocacy are a blessing to all citizens in the commonwealth.”
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