Photo Caption: Bishop Thomas Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield, left, and Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois.

Catholics throughout Illinois are being urged to contact their state representatives in the coming days and ask them to vote “no” on proposed legislation that would redefine marriage.

Because the General Assembly is now on break — the House returns Jan. 30 and the Senate Feb. 5 — “we have an opportunity . . . for people to get motivated and to engage with their elected officials,” said Robert Gilligan, executive director of the Catholic Conference of Illinois.

Gilligan and Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield were guests Monday on Relevant Radio’s “A Closer Look” show hosted by Sheila Liaugminas.

The topic was “The Religious Freedom and Marriage Fairness Act,” which would change the definition of marriage currently set in state law from “between a man and a woman” to “between two persons.” It passed a Senate committee during a lame-duck session in early January and was reintroduced as House Bill 110 after the new legislature was sworn in Jan. 9.

“A more fraudulent title for this dangerous measure could not be imagined,” wrote Bishop Paprocki in a letter to all Catholics of his diocese. “The proposed law is, in truth, a grave assault upon both religious liberty and marriage.”

As the bill was introduced in Springfield earlier this month, pastoral leaders representing more than 1,700 faith communities in Illinois — including Bishop Daniel R. Jenky, CSC, of Peoria — sent a letter to Illinois lawmakers warning that redefining marriage in civil law has “far-reaching consequences” and will “directly impact religious freedom.”

IMPLICATIONS OUTLINED
On Monday’s radio show, Bishop Paprocki outlined just a few of the implications, including that exceptions are only narrowly offered to teachers of religion and those who conduct worship services.

“Imagine in a Catholic school your first hour is religion class, and you’re discussing the sacrament of matrimony in which we’re saying that the Catholic Church teaches that matrimony is between a man and a woman,” said Bishop Paprocki. “Your next class is a math class, and you have a teacher who says, ‘Oh, I’m in a same-sex marriage.’

“We could not contradict that, we could not fire that teacher if this law passes because he or she would be protected,” continued Bishop Paprocki. “But what message does that send to our students? Everything you heard in the first period is now contradicted by a person’s behavior. And if that’s the case, what’s the point of having a Catholic school?

“If the government is going to mandate what happens in non-religion classes we might as well send all of our children to public school anyway and just have religion classes,” said Bishop Paprocki.

Another example he cited was the Knights of Columbus, which could be forced to offer their halls for same-sex couples’ wedding receptions or be accused of discrimination.

“People need to be very aware of the ramifications,” said Bishop Paprocki, adding that even if plentiful exemptions were built in marriage should not be redefined.

“Marriage is not an invention of Christianity,” he said. “It’s a natural law issue.”

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS
Because of high profile support — including from celebrities and politicians including President Barack Obama — some believe passage of the legislation is inevitable.

Gilligan disagreed, though he did admit “it’s an uphill climb for us.”

“I think it’s a battle of grassroots versus grass-tops,” he told Liaugminas. “We have the grassroots. The church community needs to get engaged.”

Gilligan recommended several resources that can be found at ilcatholic.org, the website of the Catholic Conference of Illinois. An entire section has been devoted to the fight against redefining marriage, including a sample letter to send to legislators and links for how to contact them.

Those promoting the legislation “want you to think it’s inevitable because they don’t want you to do anything,” said Gilligan. “It will be inevitable if we don’t do anything.”

He also suggested:

— Reading and discussing the “Marriage Toolkit” published online by the Catholic Conference of Illinois and made available to parishes. It includes answers to a dozen commonly asked questions about the church’s teaching on marriage;

— Joining the Illinois Catholic Advocacy Network, which provides regular email updates on topics of Catholic interest under consideration by state and federal lawmakers. The network also offers pre-written messages on urgent issued to email to elected representatives.

“It’s great we have bishops and the religious leaders speaking up,” said Bishop Paprocki, “but in the end politicians count votes. And if the constituents are silent, they’ll try to sneak this through. So people need to speak up.”