c. 2004 Religion News Service

FRANKLIN, Mass. _ Gay couples are set to walk down the aisle in Massachusetts on Monday (May 17), when a court decision legalizing same-sex marriage takes effect. And that creates a quandary for people like John Vozzella.

Vozzella is a justice of the peace who took an oath to uphold the law, which will require that he officiate at gay weddings. Yet he is also an ardent Roman Catholic who stands with his church in support of traditional marriage between a man and woman only.

“I’m being put in a position to do something that’s against my religious faith,” Vozzella said at his desk in the storefront office where he owns an insurance agency here, south of Boston.

On the threshold of the first authorized gay marriages in America, Leslie Tannenwald faces no such dilemma. A justice of the peace in Newton, she specializes in civil ceremonies for Jewish couples.

“I could certainly officiate at such a marriage. And I will be willing to bring Jewish tradition into the ceremony as well,” said Tannenwald, citing such aspects of Jewish wedding ritual as the breaking of glass and drinking from the same cup.

In Massachusetts, gay marriage now seems a fait accompli.

Taking long shots, some state legislators and conservative groups have gone to court to block the issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples. But the debate has settled on side issues, like whether homosexuals from states that ban gay marriage should have the right to marry in Massachusetts.

Rising in the foreground are questions of conscience, for individuals and institutions. The latter include some religiously affiliated colleges and universities that might have to provide benefits to spouses of gay employees.

On the front lines are justices of the peace, including town clerks.

Despite his personal opposition to gay marriage, Republican Gov. Mitt Romney has given an ultimatum to justices of the peace, who number more than 1,200 in Massachusetts. He says they will have to perform gay marriages or turn in their appointments, by order of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.

Very few justices of the peace are expected to step down right away.

“There are people in their own faith traditions who believe same-sex marriage is wrong, but have no problem performing ceremonies or signing civil marriage licenses for same-sex couples,” said Josh Friedes of the Freedom to Marry Coalition of Massachusetts, a gay marriage advocacy group.

“We’re talking about the relationship between couples and the state, not the relationship between couples and God,” he said.

In fact, justices of the peace are expected to be in heightened demand after May 17, partly because many gay couples that want to marry will find the doors of their churches, synagogues and mosques closed to them. Unitarian ministers, who generally support gay marriage, will be in demand as well.

Andrea Burke, a justice of the peace who works as an optician here, said she looks forward to sprinkling New Testament verses into her civil ceremonies for gay couples that can’t marry in their congregations.

Tannenwald, the justice who specializes in Jewish weddings, said she would be happy to “chant a blessing over the wine” for gay couples turned away by synagogues.

Vozzella will offer no special blessing _ though he plans to stay on as a justice of the peace for a while.

The ex-Marine explained that he performs weddings in a nearby prison for a nominal fee and has promised to continue doing so, at the behest of a Catholic nun who ministers there.

But he is not looking forward to same-sex nuptials.

“At the end of the ceremony I say to the groom, `you may kiss the bride.’ Now I have to say the person may kiss the person, or Party A may kiss Party B,” said Vozzella, who lives in Walpole, Mass.

A local Democratic Party activist who also sides with his church in opposing abortion and the death penalty, Vozzella rejects homosexual marriage on religious grounds. At the same time, he accepts the idea of gay “civil unions” and seemed surprised to learn in an interview here that Catholic Church leaders oppose the Vermont-style unions as well.

His plan is to wait until voters get their say. A proposed amendment banning gay marriage will appear on the state ballot in November 2006, provided lawmakers approve the measure for a second time next year. If the measure fails, he will resign as a justice of the peace.

Nearly half of the state’s residents are at least nominally Catholic. The Massachusetts Catholic bishops have made no specific appeal for Catholic justices of the peace or town clerks to refrain from participating in gay weddings. Neither have they asked families and friends of gay couples to shun the ceremonies.

Still, the church is cutting little slack for Catholics who, in any way, lend recognition to these unions, according to Daniel Avila of the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s four Catholic dioceses.

He cited an “instruction” issued last year by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The document makes it clear that Catholics “cannot in good conscience support or willingly engage in official conduct” that grants legal status to same-sex unions, he said.

Even so, Avila said the Vatican statement leaves open the possibility that Catholic justices of the peace could perform the ceremonies in good standing with their church, as long as they do so under protest and there are mitigating circumstances.

Regardless of faith affiliation, many people in Massachusetts who face choices about gay marriage will simply go their own way.

Justice of the Peace Maria Taylor calls herself Catholic but says, “I do not believe in the church as an institution.”

On the gay marriage issue, “I’m torn between modernity and the old-fashioned way,” said Taylor, an Italian immigrant who lives in Abington. She said she will perform same-sex weddings and if they do not feel right to her, she will resign.

DEA/PH END BOLE