Seattle Archbishop Peter Sartain has urged all parishes in the archdiocese to collect signatures for a referendum to overturn the Washington marriage equality law. This is in stark contrast to the more courageous and welcoming stance that a previous archbishop, Raymond Hunthausen, took three decades ago. While the Catholic Church has long expressed opposition to the government treating lesbians and gays equally in the application of civil marriage law, this appears to be the first time an archbishop has actively promoted the use of the churches themselves in such an aggressive anti-gay manner.

See Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Catholic Bishops Bless Gay Marriage Rollback;”  The Stranger, “Archbishop Turns Every Seattle Mass into an Anti-Gay Political Rally” and Seattle Times,  “Catholic Church Mixes it Up with Politics.” Also:  SartainLetter

For background on the contrasting welcoming stance by Archbishop Hunthausen in Seattle thirty years ago, see the excerpts on this website at On Catholic Hill.