In its efforts to influence health care reform and oppose same-sex marriage, the Catholic Church is wading more deeply into politics than it has in recent memory, observers say.
The church's role in politics came into sharp relief this week when the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the Washington, D.C., diocese threatened to cease its charitable activities if the D.C. city council went ahead with a plan to allow same-sex marriages.
The church's social services arm provides support to 68,000 people in the District of Columbia, among them the homeless and those in need of health care. It has received $8.2 million in funding from the D.C. government in the past three years, according to the city council.
Peter Rosenstein of the Campaign for All D.C. Families described the church's move as an attempt to "blackmail the city.
"The issue here is they are using public funds, and to allow people to discriminate with public money is unacceptable," Rosenstein told the Post. ...
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