Diocese of Brooklyn: Formal Policy on Same-Sex Marriages

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio has issued a formal decree outlining the Diocese of Brooklyn’s position on same-sex marriage, which was legalized in New York State on the last day of the last session of the State Legislature.
The policy of the diocese says:

• No member of the clergy or any person while acting as an employee of the Church, may participate in the civil solemnization or celebration of same-sex marriage, including providing services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods or privileges for such events;
• No Catholic facility or property, including parishes, missions, chapels, meeting halls, Catholic educational, health or charitable institutions or benevolent orders, or any place dedicated, consecrated, or used for Catholic worship, may be used for same-sex marriages;
• No items dedicated, consecrated, or used for the celebration of Catholic liturgy or sacred worship, including sacred vessels, vestments, liturgic books or other items may be used for same-sex marriages.

Canonical Sanctions

Failure to adhere to this diocesan policy may result in the imposition of canonical sanctions.

The decree was signed by Bishop DiMarzio and Msgr. Anthony Hernandez, chancellor of the diocese.

In the decree, Bishop DiMarzio reminded the faithful that, “For millenia, civil authority recognized the true nature of marriage. The marital union between one man and one woman was universally accepted by civil law as a constitutive element of human society, which is vital to the human family and to the continuation of human race.”