Photo by Kevin H.

With a D.C. Council vote on same-sex marriage just over a week away, a compromise proposed to assuage concerns expressed by the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington remains uncertain.

Last week, D.C. Council members David Catania (I-At Large) and Phil Mendelson (D-At Large) sent a letter to Washington Archbishop Donald Wuerl proposing that the church follow the lead of Georgetown University in offering benefits to spouses or “legally domiciled adults.” The proposal responded to concerns expressed by Wuerl that the legislation would force the church to violate its beliefs by offering benefits to same-sex couples it employs, notably through Catholic Charities, a social service provider serving 68,000 needy District residents. (The letter is available here in PDF format.)

But sources within the council say that the Archdiocese has yet to respond to the letter and has not proposed language of its own that could help resolve the stand-off. “The ball’s in their court and they will have to decide what to do,” said one staffer with knowledge of the issue. “We’ve asked them to put on paper what they want.”

The question still remains if the Archdiocese has even left room for compromise. As we noted over the weekend, in a Post op-ed published online last week and printed in the paper on Sunday, Wuerl seemed to say so. “We are asking that new language be developed that more fairly balances different interests — those of the city to redefine marriage and those of faith groups so that they can continue to provide services without compromising their deeply held religious teachings and beliefs.” But only a day later, he appeared at a press conference announcing the Manhattan Declaration, an ecumenical statement outlining Christian opposition to same-sex marriage and threatening civil disobedience to any laws legalizing it. “[Nor] will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family,” stated the declaration.

We put in a call to the Archdiocese, and the best we could get on whether they have responded to Catania and Mendelson was, “Not yet.” Regardless of what the Archdiocese decides to do, council staffers confirmed that the legislation will still go to the full council for a vote on December 1.