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Illinois has become the next key political arena in the battle over same-sex marriage, and Chicago’s Catholic Cardinal Francis George is warning his flock that legislators will be “acting against the common good of society” if they let couples of the same gender tie the knot.

A proposed Religious Freedom & Marriage Fairness Act, now before the Illinois Legislature, provides that “all state laws that are applicable to marriage apply equally to marriage of same sex and different sex couples, and their children.”

“This proposed legislation will have long-term consequences because laws teach; they tell us what is socially acceptable and what is not, and most people conform to the dictates of their respective society, at least in the short run,” Cardinal George said in a letter released Wednesday.

Cardinal George, 75, is a one-time  Northwesterner who served as Bishop of Yakima and Archbishop of Portland.  The letter, signed by Chicago’s six auxiliary bishops, will be put in parish bulletins of the large Chicago archdiocese.

The Illinois battle follows a breakthrough year for marriage equality.  Washington, Maryland and Maine voters approved same-sex marriage in the November election.  In Minnesota, a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman — given heavy financial support by by the state’s Catholic hierarchy — went down to defeat.

Nine states and the District of Columbia now recognize marriage between same-sex couples.  The U.S. Supreme Court will, later this winter, take up a legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8 — which bans gay marriage — and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which refuses federal benefits to same-sex spouses.

In Illinois, marriage equality this week won unexpected, outspoken backing from Republican state Chairman Pat Brady.

“More and more Americans understand that if two people want to make a lifelong commitment to each other, government should not stand in their way,” Brady told the Chicago Sun-Times.  “Giving gay and lesbian couples the freedom to get married honors the best conservative principles.  It strengthens families and reinforces a key Republican value — that the law should treat all citizens equally.”

But the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage has threatened a well-financed primary challenge to any Republican legislator who votes in favor of marriage equality.

Cardinal George, in his letter, denies that the Church is anti-gay, saying that it “welcomes everyone, respects each one personally and gives to each the spiritual means necessary to convert to God’s ways and maintain the friendship with Christ’s religion.”

But the Catholic prelate delivered a harsh condemnation of those in the faith community who support marriage equality.

“Some religious people have framed their acceptance of this proposed law as an exemplification of compassion, justice and inclusion,” George wrote.  “As attitudes, these sentiments have been used to justify everything from eugenics to euthanasia.”

George is also worried that those opposing same-sex marriage will get stigmatized.

Those who “continue to distinguish between genuine marital union and same-sex arrangements will be regarded in law as discriminatory, the equal of bigots,” George wrote.

Only one Midwest state — Iowa — currently permits same-sex marriage.  Its legalization came in a state supreme court decision.  Seven of the nine states embracing marriage equality are on the Eastern seaboard.