Petition bid to ban gay marriage said to gain

Activists backed by the state's four bishops say they are well on the way to collecting enough signatures to place a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts on the 2008 ballot.

Yesterday, organizers said they had collected some 25,000 signatures since Sept. 21, including thousands during the official launch of the drive this weekend. They said they had enlisted hundreds of volunteers who had canvassed in about one-third of approximately 659 Catholic churches in Massachusetts, finding a mostly supportive response.

By Nov. 23, they hope to have far more than the 65,825 certified signatures needed to advance the amendment toward the statewide ballot.

''We're a good third of the way there," said Larry Cirignano, executive director of CatholicVote.org, a Boston-based group that is helping to coordinate the effort. He was at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston's South End yesterday, where scores of parishioners signed their names to the petition. ''This has been great. It's a good start. There's no question we're going to have the numbers."

Outside several churches yesterday, including the cathedral, where Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley celebrated Mass, gay-rights activists waving signs asked parishioners, in the words of one, ''not to sign the petition in support of discrimination."

''It's important to put a face on the message," said Richard Baarsvik of Brookline, explaining why he came to the gates of the cathedral, where he asked nuns, priests, and parishioners not to sign. ''And we're agreeing to disagree. But I think it's important that they understand that discrimination affects people."

Most times, it seemed, the demonstrators found the parishioners less than receptive to their message. When Baarsvik told one woman entering the cathedral, ''Marriage is a civil law," she spun around and replied, ''No, it's not. It's instituted by Christ."

A few parishioners debated the demonstrators, but most quietly signed their names on the petitions and dropped them in a basket inside the church.

''We want it on a ballot to vote on it," said Sally Healy, 67, a retired teacher from Braintree who was at the cathedral, where about 30 gay-rights activists demonstrated outside. ''They say their rights are being infringed upon, well, we think ours are as voters, and I think that's the bottom line: Put it to the voters, and then we'll deal with whatever. We consider it a moral issue as well as a legal issue."

About 20 Boston police bicycle unit officers watched as gay-rights activists held up signs that read, ''Please Do Not Take Away Our Right to Marry," and ''Support our Families, Too."

Two activists were dressed as the grim reaper with black hoods, scythes, and placards that read, ''Homophobia + Sexism = Death."

''They want to collect 120,000 signatures," said Marc Solomon, political director of MassEquality.org, speaking of the activists working inside the cathedral. ''It wouldn't surprise me if they collect way more than that, given the intensive focus of the church."

The signature drive is part of an effort by opponents of the 2003 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that legalized gay marriage. In addition to political supporters such as Governor Mitt Romney, the state's four bishops have each sent letters to the pastors in their dioceses, asking them to support the initiative.

Many pastors have in turn appointed parishioners to lead local signature-gathering efforts. A network of activists, organized by groups such as CatholicVote.org, has helped enlist volunteers. Activists have also hired a California political consulting firm to guide them in collecting signatures.

''As I say, it's not against anybody, it's for children and it's for the stability of marriage, which is really the foundation of our great nation," said Raymond L. Flynn, a former mayor of Boston and Vatican ambassador whose name appears on the petition as one of its chief sponsors. He attended Mass at the cathedral yesterday. ''People have a right to petition, and people have a right to protest, and that's what both of us are doing," he said.

Some parishioners said they had to wrestle with the issue. One woman at the cathedral, who did not want to give her name, said she planned to sign the petition even though it was hard for her because her daughter is gay.

''It should be a man and a woman," she said of marriage. Of her daughter, she said, ''I pray for her every day. I respect her. I'll never stop loving her. I'll never stop praying for her."

At Our Lady of Victories Church in the South End, in a neighborhood where rainbow flags in support of gay rights hang in many store windows, two men holding hands walked into the church for the 11 a.m. Mass.

One of them, who did not give his name, said he respects the church's position on marriage but does not agree with it.

''The church doctrine belongs to the church, but the law belongs to the people," he said.

Although an organizer at St. Patrick Church in Roxbury said most of the 200 worshipers at yesterday's Spanish-language Mass had signed the petition, parishioner Valerie Marte, 25, said she was not among them.

''Everyone should have their own freedom," she said.

If activists succeed in gathering enough certified signatures, the amendment still faces tough tests on Beacon Hill. It would need the support of 50 lawmakers in two successive legislative sessions before the measure would appear on the 2008 ballot.

Only 50 lawmakers are required because the measure is considered a citizen petition.

''I don't think it's going to be close in terms of getting signatures," said Tom Harvey, 49, a lawyer and parishioner at St. Agnes Parish in Arlington, where activists said they had gathered about 700 signatures. ''It was judicial tyranny that same-sex marriage happened. Let's let people have their say, like all these other states have done. Why are we different?"

Gay-rights activists from a group called Knowthyneighbor.org pledged to post the names and addresses of people who signed the petitions on their website. Several supporters of the group stood outside the cathedral with signs that read, ''When you sign, it's online."

The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts, which supports the marriage amendment, in a statement called the tactic ''a raw, unconcealed attempt to intimidate Catholics from exercising their constitutional rights."

But Aaron Toleos, codirector of Knowthyneighbor.org, said the aim is to allow people who support gay marriage to find their friends and neighbors online and then lobby them to change their mind. ''It's not to intimidate them," he said.

Globe correspondents Christine McConville and Kristen Green contributed to this report.