Less than a week after an “multifaith coalition” of local religious leaders announced their plan to call on Sean Cardinal O’Malley, Archbishop of the Boston Catholic Archdiocese, and the other three Catholic bishops of Massachusetts to stop campaigning for a repeal of court-instituted homosexual marriage, Cardinal O’Malley appeared with Governor Mitt Romney and showed precisely no sign of backing down. The following is from Romney’s press release - dated June 28, 2006:

Appearing today with a broad array of religious, civic and political leaders, Governor Mitt Romney urged the Legislature and its leaders to bring the Amendment to a “fair vote” during the Constitutional Convention on July 12.

Standing today with Governor Romney in support of the Protection of Marriage Amendment, which would allow the voters of the Commonwealth to determine the definition of marriage in Massachusetts, were Cardinal Sean O’Malley, Archdiocese of Boston; Bishop George Coleman, Diocese of Fall River; Bishop Robert McManus, Diocese of Worcester; Dr. Roberto Miranda, Chairman, VoteOnMarriage.org; Kris Mineau, President, Massachusetts Family Institute; and a bi-partisan group of state legislators.

Having briefly met Cardinal O’Malley earlier this week during a completely unrelated event, I have to say I believe him to be a sincere, honorable and holy man - we are blessed to have him here in the Boston area. I am happy and pleased to see him standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Romney on this issue and I’m sure the gross mischaracterization of his and his fellow bishops’ position on the subject of homosexual marriage by this group had to be painful for him to hear.

In case you were wondering, the Globe article describes the “multifaith coalition” as follows:

The board of the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry includes clergy from several liberal Christian and Jewish denominations and other faiths, including paganism.

We are, indeed, known by the company we keep.