Acushnet, Mass., May 18, 2012 / 02:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A Massachusetts Catholic parish has received threats of arson and other harassing messages after posting a sign with the Church's position on same-sex “marriage.”

“It went viral,” said Steven Guillotte, Director of Pastoral Services at Saint Francis Xavier Parish in Acushnet, recalling an “explosion” of responses to the message displayed on the sign in front of the church earlier this week. It read: “Two men are friends, not spouses.”

Guillotte posted the message on the morning of May 15, and responded within hours to an e-mail “saying that it was hateful.” Later that day, Guillotte's e-mail response ended up being posted to Facebook.

“Next thing you know, the nasty telephone calls started to come, and they were coming every few minutes,” said the pastoral director in a May 17 interview with CNA.

After local media took an interest, there were “some horrible e-mails overnight,” and a phone call from a woman “saying the church should be burned down.”

“We had a group of three young men and a woman who were upset. They were actually planning on going into the church,” he recounted. Guillotte steered them away, while trying to field an inquiry from a reporter.

“She witnessed one of the guys scream across the parking lot that he was going to burn the church down. We hear that, here and there.”

Guillotte said the sign was intended to clarify Catholic beliefs after President Obama's recent support for redefining marriage. After the president's announcement, he recalled, “there were a lot of Catholics out there misrepresenting, or even maligning, the Church's position on gay marriage.”

“So I came in on this past Tuesday morning and just decided to put up a sign expressing the Church's teaching in a very concise way … saying that the proper relationship between two men – or for that matter, two women – is friendship, and not marriage.”

Opponents of the message starting posting their own signs on or near the parish property. One of them contained an invitation to “spread LOVE, not hate,” while another used a sexual insult to describe the Virgin Mary. Others read “Jesus Freaks, come to your senses,” and “Pray for death.”

Many of the phone calls “were just f-words and people hanging up,” along with others “saying they were disgusted with the sign” and asking “how could we do it, because it was so 'hateful.'”

But Guillotte said the expressions of “hate” or “intolerance” seemed to be coming from the Church's critics in this case.

“If the Methodist church down the street put a sign up that said they were in favor of gay marriage,” he observed, “you wouldn't see me down their with a hammer and nails on their property.”

Another phone call came from a concerned Catholic, who worried that the sign would drive people away from the Church. Guillotte disagrees.

“We have a pastor who's taken a firm, orthodox stand on Church teaching, and our staff is the same way,” he said. “Unlike some parishes in the area, our census has actually gone up this last year.”

Although the Church sign has since been changed, Guillotte continues to stand by Tuesday's message as one that should be brought into the public square. He said Catholics should show patience and love in the debate over marriage, but also be “firm in our presentation of what the truth is.”

Otherwise, he warned, “next thing you know, you're agreeing with the other side, which is exactly what they're really striving for.”

He believes advocates for sexual radicalism “don't really want tolerance, in my opinion; they want us to agree with them.”

“When we do that,” he said, “we give up our Catholic faith, and I think we turn our back on Christ.”

Washington D.C., May 18, 2012 / 12:01 am (CNA).- U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) has introduced a bill to place President Franklin D. Roosevelt's D-Day prayer on the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C.

“On D-Day, courageous Americans risked and sacrificed their lives to preserve our freedoms and end tyranny abroad,” said Portman. “That morning, President Roosevelt asked our nation to come together to pray for the men overseas.”

A senator in the key swing state of Ohio, Portman is considered one of the top potential picks for Vice President on the 2012 Republican ticket. 

In a May 10 statement shortly after he introduced the legislation, he explained that Roosevelt’s prayer “brought strength and comfort to many during one of the most challenging times for our nation.”

Those words “will forever be etched in our history,” he said.

The World War II Memorial Prayer Act of 2012 would commemorate D-Day, June 6, 1944, when more than 150,000 American, British and Canadian troops landed along a 50-mile beach stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline.

More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded, but the invasion allowed many others to begin the march across Europe to fight Hitler’s forces.

On that day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt invited the nation to prayer through a national radio address.

In his historic prayer, Roosevelt asked the Lord to watch over those who were fighting “to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”

He called on America to join with him in praying for guidance to fight “greed and racial arrogances” while seeking true freedom and lasting peace.

The president called for the blessings of Almighty God in the fight for justice and freedom, saying that “by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph.”
 
Although many people had asked him to call for “a single day of special prayer,” Roosevelt said that he instead wanted to encourage the people to “devote themselves in a continuance of prayer.”

Acknowledging that the road ahead would be long and difficult, he prayed for the gifts of faith, courage and strength, both for the soldiers and the American people at home.

“As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts,” he said.
 
The president also beseeched the Lord to embrace those soldiers who would not return, welcoming them into his kingdom.

Asking that God’s “will be done,” Roosevelt prayed for those at home “to rededicate ourselves in renewed faith in Thee in this hour of great sacrifice.”

Portman said that his bill ensures that Roosevelt’s prayer “will become a permanent reminder of the sacrifice of those who fought in World War II,” as well as a modern remembrance of “the power of prayer through difficult times.”

A companion bill, introduced by Congressman Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this year.

By birth Pope John was a Tuscan, the son of Constantius. He was an archdeacon for several years before being elected Pope upon the death of Pope St. Hormisdas in 523. He was also a good friend and confidant of the philosopher Boethius.In 525 Pope John was sent to Constantinople by King Theodoric of the Ostrogoths to reverse an edict sent out by Emperor Justin against the Arians two years earlier, which required Arians to give back churches which they had taken from orthodox Catholics. Throdoric was himself an Arian, and a strong defender of Arianism (a heresy which arose in the 4th century and denied the divinity of Christ).Even though Theodoric wanted a reversal of Justin’s policy, Pope John did not comply with his wishes. Refusing to support heresy, he only counseled the Emperor Justin to be more gentle in his overzealous dealings with the Arians.The success that Pope John achieved was contrary to the wishes of Theodoric. He was received as the Successor of Peter and all the bishops of the East, with the exception of one, affirmed their communion with him and his precedence as Bishop of Rome, notable by the fact that it was he who presided over the Easter liturgy in Constantinople on April 19, 526. Even the Emperor Justin prostrated himself at the Pope’s feet.However, on his return to Rome, Theodoric, who had just murdered John’s good friend Boethius, and was furious with the outcome of the mission and had the Pope imprisoned in Ravenna, where he died of starvation and ill treatment.His body was taken to Rome where he now lies buried in the basilica of St. Peter.

9And the Lord said to Paul in the night, by a vision: Do not fear, but speak; and hold not thy peace, 10Because I am with thee: and no man shall set upon thee, to hurt thee; for I have much people in this city. 11And he stayed there a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God. 12But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat, 13Saying: This man persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law. 14And when Paul was beginning to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews: If it were some matter of injustice, or an heinous deed, O Jews, I should with reason bear with you. 15But if they be questions of word and names, and of your law, look you to it: I will not be judge of such things. 16And he drove them from the judgment seat. 17And all laying hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, beat him before the judgment seat; and Gallio cared for none of those things. 18But Paul, when he had stayed yet many days, taking his leave of the brethren, sailed thence into Syria (and with him Priscilla and Aquila), having shorn his head in Cenchrae: for he had a vow.