ANNAPOLIS, Md. (CNS) — Several days before they approved a bill to legalize same-sex “marriage” in Maryland, members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee heard passionate testimony for and against the proposal in a hearing room filled beyond capacity.

Supporters of the measure argued that same-sex “marriage” should be a civil right, while opponents maintained that marriage is the fundamental building block of society and should not be altered.

On Feb. 17 in a 7-4 vote, the committee approved the measure and sent it to the Senate floor, where it was expected to pass. The House scheduled a hearing for Feb. 25. Gov. Martin O’Malley has said he will sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk.

At the Feb. 8 Senate committee hearing, Father Erik Arnold, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City, joined several other religious leaders in pointing out that marriage has always held a special place in society as the union of a man and a woman.

It is “the one relationship,” he said, “that is capable on its own of bringing a new baby boy or girl into the world and of providing that baby with a unique and complementary love of his father and mother.”

Maryland has held marriage in a special place, Father Arnold said, because of the contribution husbands and wives make to building up society.

“To want to hold onto this special place is not narrow-minded or bigoted — I am not,” he said. “It’s simply the recognition that it truly is a unique institution that so contributes to the well-being of our society that it is worthy of special recognition.”

Father Roy Campbell, pastor of St. Joseph in Largo, said a child “deserves a stable and nurturing environment.”

“And that’s provided by marriage between his or her biological mother and father,” Father Campbell said. “This is the most fundamental societal unit that our country was founded upon, and it promotes continued and orderly growth for our society.”

Committee member Sen. Jennie Forehand of Montgomery County asked Father Campbell whether his church welcomed homosexual people.

“We welcome all people because all people are created in the image and likeness of God,” Father Campbell responded. “The Church accepts people as they are. What we do with who we are is a different story.”

The pastor emphasized that the Church “looks at marriage as between a man and a woman.”

Sen. Richard Madaleno, an openly homosexual lawmaker and lead sponsor of the bill, was among several homosexual proponents who said they felt discriminated against by the state’s marriage laws.

He said the term “partner” cheapens his relationship with a man he “married” through his church a decade ago.

“It makes us sound like we are simply in business together,” Madaleno said. “It is a badge of dishonor I must wear every day because my state will not recognize civil marriage.”

Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, said opposition to same-sex “marriage” isn’t about discrimination.

“We are here not as a hate group,” she said, “and to claim that our view is one of simple discrimination simply dismisses many of the valid arguments you’ve heard before you.”

Russell raised concerns that the bill contains no genuine religious-freedom protections. In written testimony, she pointed out that the bill’s title, the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act, is misleading since the state constitution already establishes that no clergy member or religious institution can be required to solemnize a marriage in violation of the right to free exercise of religion.

“We are certainly very concerned about the very bald language in this bill when it comes to religious exemptions,” Russell told lawmakers at the hearing. “I do think that any religious organization will be very concerned were a bill like this to pass about their ability to maintain their religious principles.”

Bill opponents pointed out that Maryland law already provides benefits to same-sex and other domestic partnerships, including health-care facility visitation, health-care decision-making, the ability to adopt children and certain tax rights.

In a homily Feb. 13 at an archdiocesan Mass for World Marriage Day, Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien said the recognition of marriage as being between one man and one woman is not arbitrary.

“This recognition, bestowed on marriage by societies throughout human history, originates in a simple biological fact,” he said. “The union of one man and one woman is the only relationship capable of creating children and nurturing them together as father and mother.”

In other legislative action on same-sex unions, the Hawaii Senate passed a bill Feb. 16 that would legalize civil unions for homosexual couples, giving them the same rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities that heterosexual married couples have. The House passed it a week before the Senate did.

The measure has now gone to Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie to sign into law. If signed, it would take effect Jan. 1, 2012.

Last July, then-Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, vetoed a similar bill to establish civil unions, saying she believed the legislation was “essentially (same-sex) ‘marriage’ by another name.” The Hawaii Catholic Conference and the Hawaii Family Forum praised her decision, saying it affirmed “the will of Hawaii citizens.”