For two years, the Roman Catholic Church remained silent on domestic partnerships in New Mexico. That changed this year.
In a high-profile turnaround, the state’s largest religious institution has weighed in against a bill that would confer many of the rights married couples enjoy to both same-sex and unmarried opposite-sex couples.
An Archdiocese of Santa Fe spokesman inveighed against the bill at this year’s primary legislative hearing on the bill as Archbishop Michael Sheehan sat a few feet away, making for a very visible presence.
Meanwhile, Catholic parishioners have joined the chorus of opponents in greater numbers than in the past, making telephone calls to state lawmakers to voice their opposition to the legislation.
Opponents in previous years were composed mainly of nondenominational and Baptist church members.
Some say the Catholic Church’s decision to get off the sidelines has had a dramatic effect on an already tense debate that at its heart features a clash of two big ideas — equal rights vs. traditional values.
“It’s changed the dynamic,” said Rep. Mimi Stewart, D-Albuquerque, who is sponsoring the legislation in the House of Representatives.
The legislation’s highest-profile supporter, Gov. Bill Richardson, noted the change in a year that has looked to be the most promising for the bill’s fortunes. Several progressive lawmakers won seats to the state House and Senate, essentially bolstering the ranks of the bill’s supporters.
“It’s been enormous,” Richardson said of the Catholic Church’s influence. “They are a very powerful force. Hopefully we will prevail, very narrowly. It’s a very divisive issue.”
Domestic partnership opponents, meanwhile, are welcoming the Catholic Church’s voice in a state where a large segment of the population identifies itself as Catholic.
“In the past we haven’t had the unity that we have right now from all the different denominations and the Catholics,” said Rep. Nora Espinoza, R-Roswell. This year “we stand together under one common ground — family values.”
The Catholic Church’s influence will be tested as early as Monday, when the Senate is expected to vote on the legislation. The vote count is so close that advocates and opponents are unsure whose side will prevail.
The legislation has died in the Senate the past two years. The House barely passed it last year on a 33-31 vote.
Deacon Steve Rangel, who speaks for the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops on the issue, could not be reached for comment.
But earlier this year Rangel told state lawmakers that the church had waded into the debate this year because court decisions in other states displayed how domestic partnerships can ultimately lead to same-sex marriage.
One prominent example is Connecticut, which joined Massachusetts as the only other state to recognize same-sex marriage in October.
(California briefly recognized same-sex marriage after the state’s Supreme Court struck down the state’s ban on it. California voters, however, approved a proposition in November that banned same-sex marriages.)
The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that the state’s civil unions law, passed in 2005, was discriminatory and set up an unequal treatment under the law.
Domestic partnerships, like civil unions, would lead to same-sex marriage because someone could challenge legally recognized domestic partnerships as an unequal and pale version of marriage, opponents say.
Supporters of the legislation respond that passing domestic partnerships would not lead to marriage, partly because the bill itself has language that says domestic partnerships should not be mistaken as civil marriage.
The American Civil Liberties Union, meanwhile, says that while California and Connecticut did allow marriage after starting with domestic partnerships, the court rulings were based on each state’s constitution, and not on the domestic partnership law.
Seven of the nine states that have domestic partnerships — or civil unions — have not allowed gay couples to marry, the ACLU points out. In two of those states — Washington and New Jersey — courts specifically decided their constitutions did not require marriage.
It is difficult to assess the actual influence of the Catholic Church’s stance on the domestic partnerships debate in the Legislature.
There is no debate that New Mexico boasts a large Catholic population. But discerning how large is difficult. The usual number used for those who identify as Catholic but aren’t necessarily on the church rolls is 40 percent of the population, said Richard Wood, who teaches religious studies at University of New Mexico.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops estimates that roughly a quarter of New Mexico’s population — or 498,334 — are on church rolls, while the Association of Religion Data Archives estimates around 670,000 Catholics in New Mexico.
Any of those numbers would make Catholics by far the largest religious group in the state.
But as with all religious groups, Catholics don’t necessarily speak with one voice.
“I’m Roman Catholic,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, who is a supporter of domestic partnerships.
“The Constitution of the U.S. provides equal protection under the law for all citizens. And that is really important,” Park said. “We should be treated the same regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, creed, all of those things.”
But Espinoza, the Roswell lawmaker opposed to domestic partnerships, said that the Catholic Church’s joining the debate this year signals a new unified front against such legislation.
“I think we will see some changes,” Espinoza said. “I really believe that the community that believes very strongly out there in family values is going to become more active in the process.”
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(Source: NMI)