Pope Denounces Gay Marriage in Canada

My Way News ^ | 9/4/04 | AP

[wagglebee]

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II kept up his campaign against gay marriage Saturday, telling the ambassador from Canada - where some provinces allow same-sex couples to wed - that such unions create a "false understanding" of marriage.

In past months, the pope urged authorities to stop approving gay marriages, saying that they degrade the true sense of marriage.

The pope spoke Saturday to the new Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See, Donald Smith.

"The institution of marriage necessarily entails the complementarity of husbands and wives who participate in God's creative activity through the raising of children," said the pontiff, according to the text of the speech released by the Vatican.

"Spouses thereby ensure the survival of society and culture, and rightly deserve specific and categorical legal recognition by the State.

"Any attempts to change the meaning of the word 'spouse' contradict right reason: legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage."

Three Canadian provinces, accounting for about 70 percent of the country's 31 million people, allow same-sex marriage: Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia. The ruling Liberal Party has promised legislation legalizing gay marriage, perhaps next year after Canada's Supreme Court gives a nonbinding opinion on a tentative bill.

Speaking to another newly appointed ambassador to the Holy See, Philip McDonagh of Ireland, the pope called on the European Union to keep a policy of openness and acceptance of immigrants. Ireland held the EU rotating presidency until the end of June.

"The plight of refugees and those displaced by poverty, war or persecution is particularly dramatic and calls for special consideration and generosity," John Paul said.

"The Holy See hopes that the steps taken during the Irish presidency of the European Union in favor of policies of openness to other peoples will continue to inspire the community's attitude to immigrants from other continents and cultures."

[Aetius]

The question is whether the people and their elected representatives will get to decide whether or not to recognize 'some sort of gay union', or if recognition will be imposed upon them by the courts.

Hopefully it will ultimately be the former, and as such the gay community and their allies would just have to accept it that many, or probabably even most states would not grant their unions any legal status. But they could take comfort in knowing they could move to the Northeast, or West Coast where majority sentiment may be on their side.

[Aetius]

Unfortunately the Church is pretty bad on immigration as a general rule, both in the US and Europe. Though, with Europe it is even harder to understand considering that the largest source of immigrants are Muslim and would not hesitate to impose their beliefs on the dwindling post-Christian native populations once they have the numbers to do so.

[megatherium]

Third, even in places where homosexuality are more tolerated than in America, homosexuals have higher-than-average rates of depression and suicide.

Since my posts #11 and #15, I have learned that a former partner of an old gay friend of mine recently suicided. (My friend was very distressed even though he was no longer in touch with the unfortunate fellow, whom I never met.) So while I might contest some of your numbers, MegaSilver, your points are well-taken.

Yet, I still am reluctant to condemn my gay friends who are in long-term stable monogamous relationships. I feel a little like Huck Finn, who decides not to turn in his friend Jim, a runaway slave, even if it means going to hell.