Posted on 09/08/2011 2:32:07 AM PDT by Cronos
The leader of Scotland's Catholic community has warned that moves by MSPs to legalise gay marriage will be "strenuously opposed" by the Church.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, in a strongly worded homily delivered at a mass for politicians in Edinburgh last night, claimed that allowing gay people to wed through a civil or religious ceremonies would be a "direct attack" on the institution of marriage.
However, the intervention sparked criticism from MSPs, with the openly gay leader of the Scottish Greens, Patrick Harvie, attacking the Cardinal's remarks as "absurd" and as an attempt to "suppress" the freedom of gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
The row came after the SNP government launched a 14-week consultation on allowing gay marriage - a change to the law that currently allows same-sex couples to enter a civil partnership, but bans the ceremony from church or other religious premises.
However, Cardinal O'Brien suggested that supporters of gay marriage wanted to "rewrite human nature" as he appealed to MSPs to oppose the proposed reform.
He said: "The Church esteems the institution of marriage as the most stable building block upon which any family can rest.
"The view of the Church is clear, no government can rewrite human nature; the family and marriage existed before the State and are built on the union between a man and woman.
"Any attempt to redefine marriage is a direct attack on a foundational building block of society and will be strenuously opposed."
There was also a sharply worded statement issued by the Bishops' Conference of Scotland yesterday, which suggested that the Scottish Government's consultation was "an exercise for justifying the campaign demands" of the "vociferous" gay rights lobby.
But Green MSP Mr Harvie attacked the Catholic Church's stance on gay rights and highlighted a Scottish Social Attitudes survey which revealed 60 per cent believe same-sex couples should have the right to marry.
"It's absurd to suggest that one marriage can undermine other marriages," he said.
"Just as non-Catholics respect Catholic marriages, so it's time for the Cardinal to start respecting the right of every adult to love who they please.
"The Cardinal should also remember that he doesn't speak for all people of faith, or even all Christians.
"There are many faith groups who want to conduct same-sex marriages for their members, and the Catholic Church seems determined to try and suppress their freedom to do so."
SNP MSP John Mason, who faced criticism for lodging a parliamentary motion that said no-one should be "forced" to approve of same-sex marriage, said he wanted "to encourage churches" to get involved in the debate about the proposals.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "Our consultation, published last week, sets out that the Scottish Government tends towards the initial view that same-sex marriage should be introduced in Scotland but that faith groups and their celebrants should not be obliged to solemnise same sex marriages."
Even though the Left believes humans are the product of natural evolution, the Left does not count humans as part of nature (but as something in opposition to it), therefore the Left does not accept the naturality argument.
ergo, the Church had best be ready to ‘strenuously oppose’ The Massah.
Marriage is not about some legal hocus pocus that gives some legal or financial benefit to people who love each other. If it were, why stop at 2 people or even People? If marriage were for those benefits alone, then why even bring sex into it, why not formalize communes?
And the move to *change* marriage is certainly not about love or privacy. If it were, no one would be demanding to use photographers, doctors, hotel banquet halls, and church properties for the wedding ceremony and procreation.
Could it be all about health insurance so those men can qualify for payment for their Viagra?
Marriage between a man and a woman has a long history - Marriage existed long before America did, longer than the US Constitution. Preserve marriage as between a man and a woman only. Give others respect through civil unions. (To Catholics: Worry about your own souls and let God judge until you are chosen to judge for God. Until then, respect your fellow man and woman.)
Mutual masturbation does not warrant special treatment in society.
If it were only that simple! The call for civil marriage and homosexual demands has spilled onto Catholic charity and the ability to not only run adoption agencies according to their own deeply held theological beliefs, but now, onto Catholic hospitals and organizations.
God's judgment is his and I'm perfectly happy to let him exercise either His call to one or His judgment. That's not our call.
However, when the call for civil marriage becomes the center point of a vastly larger demand that those who view homosexuality to be in opposition to their beliefs be coerced in every other sphere to compromise and ignore those beliefs, the line is drawn.
It is the demand that Catholics must bow to the normalizing of aberrant behavior antithetical to Catholicism and the dismantling of the governance rights of Catholic adoption agencies, organizations and businesses that must stop.
“Nevertheless, the naturalists,(32) as well as all who profess that they worship above all things the divinity of the State, and strive to disturb whole communities with such wicked doctrines, cannot escape the charge of delusion. Marriage has God for its Author, and was from the very beginning a kind of foreshadowing of the Incarnation of His Son; and therefore there abides in it a something holy and religious; not extraneous, but innate; not derived from men, but implanted by nature.”
—Pope Leo XIII, circa 1880
Statists and homosexualists love that the state defines marriage for many. It provides tremendous control in the culture, even as far as accepting impossibilities like “gay marriage” just because the state issues a piece of paper saying it is possible. They also love that the state can punish those who reject the statist and homosexualist ever devolving take on marriage.
Freegards
I will NEVER recognize a homosexual marriage.
Well stated. There is a desire to go against nature. They would repeal gravity if they could. Thus gays wish to copulated freely even though anal sex inflects injury on the persons subject to it and leads to a high incidence of STDs including AIDS. There is something diabolical about this hatred if the natural.
I have no idea what homosexuals are whining about. They already have the same rights to marriage as everyone else. What they are looking for is a new “right”.
I have no idea if you are a believer or not, but scripturally speaking, we are called to be very concerned about the souls of others. (By we, I mean all Christians. I am not Catholic.)
It used to be called being a busy-body. Sticking your nose where it does not belong.
Then Jesus is calling all Christians to be a busy-body.
Mark 16:15: He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."
Therefore, the Church IS respecting our fellow man and woman.
Which is something I really like about Catholicism.
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