Manhattan Declaration -- Religious leaders pledge commitment to conscience issues

Signed by 125 Christian religious leaders — including Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, 13 other Catholic bishops and several Catholic laity — “The Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience” calls all Christians to proclaim the Gospel message.

The 4,700-word document urges Christians to hold fast to their convictions despite modern-day political and cultural obstructions. Christians should not tolerate laws that do not respect human dignity, that seek to redefine marriage, or that infringe upon the freedom to practice one’s religious beliefs.

“We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act,” a portion of the declaration states, “nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family.”

“The ‘Manhattan Declaration’ is aimed at raising awareness of the pivotal nature of these key issues of our day and of the grave threats to them,” said Bishop Olmsted.

“We need to be aware of these issues and be ready to take a stand in the public square to uphold and to defend them for the good of society,” he said.

As of Nov. 30, more than 204,000 people have pledged their support of the “Manhattan Declaration.” The signers encourage the public to support the document online at www.manhattandeclaration.org.

“My hope is that every Catholic will read the ‘Manhattan Declaration’ and sign the online document to send a message of unity and clarity to the culture,” said Mike Phelan, director of the diocesan Office of Marriage and Respect Life. “Being Christian means something with implications for our life together. We respect the beliefs of all, and at the same time, we do not compromise core principles on life, family and conscience.”

Supporting marriage

For years Bishop Olmsted has been at the forefront in championing the efforts addressed in the “Manhattan Declaration.” Last year, the Diocese of Phoenix urged Catholics to vote in favor of a state constitutional amendment that successfully defined marriage as between a man and a woman. Voters in California and Florida similarly upheld the definition of marriage last November.

The bishop has also written about the role of Catholics in political life in his column space in The Catholic Sun and has authored a nationally recognized question-and-answer book on the matter.

Recently, the Diocese of Phoenix donated $50,000 to the Diocese of Portland, Maine, to help educate the Catholics there on the Church’s teaching on marriage and family life. The goal was to preserve the makeup of marriage between a man and a woman.

Defending marriage has become a top priority in the United States, said Bishop Olmsted. Maine was at a crossroads like Arizona, California and Florida before it.

“Without healthy marriages, children suffer and often end up in poverty, and the future stability of society is compromised,” the bishop said. “What happened in Maine had implications for all the other 49 states.”

When Bishop Richard Malone, leader of the Maine diocese, appealed for help from other U.S. bishops, “I knew firsthand how he felt. I considered it important that we express our solidarity with him and with all those who were defending marriage there, not only for the good of that state but far beyond,” said Bishop Olmsted. “I give thanks to God that the efforts to protect marriage in Maine proved to be successful.”

In its defense of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, the declaration notes a progressive erosion of the culture of marriage due to infidelity, high divorce rates and out-of-wedlock births.

The document states that the “impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple-partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture” and it further adds that “no one has a civil right to have a nonmarital relationship treated as a marriage.”

On life issues, the declaration urges “all elected officials in our country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless and vulnerable among us.”

On the issue of religious liberty, the document highlights weakened or eliminated conscience clauses that force “pro-life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions.”

It also notes the use of “anti-discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business.”

Recent news reports have claimed that the Archdiocese of Washington and its social service arm, Catholic Charities, are threatening to stop providing social services if the District of Columbia City Council’s proposed same-sex marriage bill passes.

The archdiocese said it will continue its outreach services, but its work would be significantly limited as the bill offers little protection for religious beliefs. It would require Catholic Charities to recognize and promote same-sex marriage in employment policies, and adoption and foster-care policies.

Catholic Charities’ homeless shelter, counseling and adoption programs are funded with $20 million in government contracts and about $10 million in funds from the archdiocese.

The Catholic Church has also been vocal in supporting health care reform that does not include coverage of abortion.

Mike Phelan of the Diocese of Phoenix called the “Manhattan Declaration” an “inspiring document” for today’s Christians. The declaration points to times throughout the last 2,000 years where Christians played a role in changing the world and preserving civilization through difficult times.

“During this time when we are facing in the U.S. such a crisis of recognition of human dignity in the unborn and the elderly, where the fundamental social institution of marriage is in danger of undergoing radical experimentation in the form of redefinition, and where professionals are more and more challenged to live their beliefs in their work, we have to make a clear and moral stand,” Phelan said.

A draft of the declaration was presented to those attending a September meeting on marriage. Bishop Olmsted was among the Catholic, Orthodox and evangelical Christian leaders present at the Manhattan meeting and provided input on the document before it was finalized and signed.

“It gives me great joy to be able to join with other Christians in this initiative. This is ecumenism at its best,” said Bishop Olmsted. “I would hope that the declaration would be widely read and discussed.”

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Contributing to this story was Carol Zimmerman in Washington, D.C.

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