(RNS) Catholic bishops and dioceses nationwide donated more than $180,000 to defeat gay marriage in Maine last week, according to campaign finance records.
Two dioceses — Phoenix and Philadelphia — contributed $50,000 each to the voters’ initiative, which overturned a Maine law that would have legalized gay marriage. The dioceses of St. Louis, Newark, N.J., and Youngstown, Ohio, contributed $10,000 each.
St. Louis Archbishop Robert Carlson said in a statement that his diocese’s donation came from a “special needs” account tapped at his discretion. That account is funded by “private gifts.”
By 53 percent to 47 percent, Maine voters rejected a law that Maine’s Roman Catholic governor signed in May. The law would have made Maine the sixth state to allow same-sex partners to wed. Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont allow gay marriage now. New Hampshire will in January.
The Nov. 3 ballot measure asked voters: “Do you want to reject the new law that lets same-sex couples marry and allows individuals and religious groups to refuse to perform these marriages?”
The catechism of the Roman Catholic Church calls homosexual acts “acts of grave depravity” and “intrinsically disordered” because they “close the sexual act to the gift of life.”
The Catholic Church led the charge to reject the new law. In the quarter leading up to the vote, 45 dioceses around the country contributed a total of $180,550 to the effort, according to the campaign finance records. Nearly 70 percent of the dioceses contributed $1,000 or less. Six bishops personally contributed a total of $2,700.
According to the Portland Press Herald, the two sides of the ballot issue in Maine spent more than $7 million.
It is illegal for tax-exempt religious organizations to participate in political campaigns for candidates, but they can “engage in advocating for or against issues and, to a limited extent, ballot initiatives or other legislative activities,” according to Internal Revenue Service regulations.
It’s not unusual for Catholic dioceses to support one another when ballot issues arise that relate to church teaching. In 2006, the St. Louis Archdiocese contributed $121,000 in a failed attempt to defeat a ballot proposal protecting all forms of embryonic stem cell research allowed under federal law. On Wednesday, archdiocesan officials said other dioceses around the country contributed to that effort.
Carlson said that in June, Portland Archbishop Richard Malone asked all U.S. bishops for financial support.
