Homeless Aid Agency Loses Catholic $$ Over Pro-Marriage Support

The Catholic Church was shown to have contributed over half a million dollars to the successful effort in Maine late last year to repeal marriage rights for gay and lesbian families. Now, the church is punishing an aid organization for having publicly backed the pro-marriage side of the debate by cutting off its funds.

Portland, Maine-based Preble Street's Homeless Voices for Justice violated the conditions under which it received money from the Catholic church's programs, a spokesperson for the church said, reported Maine newspaper the Portland Press Herald on March 24. The church requested a return of $17,400 and canceled a previously promised grant of $33,000 for next year following the approval last November by Maine voters of a Proposition 8-style ballot initiative that overturned a marriage equality measure approved by state lawmakers earlier in the year.

Though Preble Street's executive director, Mark Swann, had completed documents that indicated that the aid organization did not support marriage rights for gay and lesbian families, the organization backed the No on 1 side of the issue--the side that campaigned to preserve legal family parity in Maine. Swann explained in a letter accompanying the refund that gay youths are particularly vulnerable to homelessness. The organization's board, however, did not support the campaign to preserve marriage.

Funding by a local Catholic aid group was also rescinded, with Catholic Charities Maine asking for the return of $2,400. Catholic Charities Maine's Sandra Thompson told Preble House that, "Accountability to the Catholic community requires this."

But some among the Catholic community protested the funds being yanked, and pointed to the Catholic hierarchy--in particular, Bishop Richard Malone--as being the ones to require the punitive action. Catholics for Marriage Equality has begun an effort to raise the same amount of money that was revoked by the Catholic church; CME co-founder Anne Underwood called the demand for a refund and the loss of future support "petty vindictiveness," saying, "After the election is over, suddenly the money is revoked from poor people because of a political opinion held by the bishop." Added Underwood, "People who are homeless should not be used in political games." Underwood worried that the church's actions would cause its own members to hesitate when it comes to donating money to the church for disbursal to aid groups.

The lost funds for the homeless total around $50,000, but the Catholic Church contributed more than ten times that much to the effort to repeal the marriage equality law at the ballot box last November, an EDGE article just after the vote reported. Churches across the nation poured funds into Maine, and Bishop Malone appeared in a video message to ask parishioners to contribute to the Yes on 1 campaign to repeal marriage equality, and Catholic churches had a special second collection at services to fund the anti-marriage campaign, the article reported.

In other areas where marriage equality is legal, Catholic aid programs have stopped handling adoptions rather than be obliged to follow local laws and place needy children in homes headed by prospective parents of the same gender.