I recently received my "Preserving Marriage in MN" DVD from the Catholic diocese. I plan to toss it, unwatched. I have more important things to do with my time, and so does the diocese.
In his letter, Bishop Quinn says marriage has two purposes — to be a stable relationship in which the two people support each other through life, and to bring children into the world and raise them well. The couples I’ve known who happen to be homosexual have been both committed to each other and exemplary parents and caregivers. One of my children, as an infant, was cared for beautifully by neighbors who were lesbian, and in doing so, they strengthened my family during a stressful year.
Bishop Quinn describes the effort to legalize gay marriage in Minnesota as "frightening." Really? The diocese should be more frightened about the fact that 14 percent of Minnesota children lived in poverty in 2009, an increase of 34,000 children from the year before. How many of these children were from married households? If they were mostly from single-parent households, why was that? Where is the DVD on poverty? Did the diocese not make one because there was no donor? Perhaps the million-dollar gift could have been used to explore the relationship between marriage and economic well-being.
Church leaders should stop spreading fear at election time and seek out information and understanding in the gay/lesbian community.
Michelle L. Pearson
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Rochester
