Posted on 04/22/2005 4:08:23 PM PDT by traumer
Pope Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage between homosexuals.
The bill, passed by parliament's Socialist-dominated lower house, also allows gay couples to adopt.
A senior Vatican official described the bill - which is likely to become law within a few months - as iniquitous.
He said Roman Catholic officials should be prepared to lose their jobs rather than co-operate with the law.
The bill would make Spain the first European country to allow homosexual people to marry and adopt children.
Belgium and the Netherlands only allow same-sex marriages. It is also a dramatic step in the rapid secularisation of what was once one of the most devoutly Roman Catholic countries in Europe.
The head of the Vatican's Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, denounced the legislation as profoundly iniquitous.
Secular state
Interviewed in the Italian newspaper, Corriere de la Serra, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said the Church was making an urgent call for freedom of conscience for Roman Catholics and appealing to them to resist the law.
He said every profession linked with implementing homosexual marriages should oppose it, even if it meant losing their jobs.
The cardinal insisted that just because something was made law it did not make it right.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took office a year ago making it clear he intended to remove what he called the church's undeniable advantages and make Spain a secular state.
There are likely to be further tensions with Pope Benedict XVI. Mr Zapatero has made it clear that he intends to streamline divorce law and even to relax the conditions placed on abortion.
That is going to be a huge flop. It is also stupid. Soon, no one who shares the Pope's world view will be in government or other positions of influence where they administer the law, because one or more of them will be deem "iniquitous." It seems rather assinine.
Maybe a better approach for the hardline wing of the Catholic Church would be to try to more effectively persuade the public square, rather than hector the faithful.
Since the 1606 interdict of Pope Paul V imposed against Venice.
Yet more repercussions from the former Gonzalez government's decision to cover up Al Queda's role in the 3/11 attacks for four critical days. Had they been straight with the Spanish people, they would have surely rallied behind them. But Gonzalez lied, and as a result the unmitigated disaster named Zapatero was able to seize power and thrust Spain into a process which will undoubtedly end with their destruction as a power, and eventual submission to Sharia law.
Its not surprising that the Anti-Christ will come out of Europe.
Do these people expect the Pope to change the word of God?
The bible says homosexuality is an abomination. It always will be in His eyes.
Kudos to the "old guard" Pope!
Pope John Paul II never said any such thing, and nor did he do any such thing.
Explain your Modernist point of view to Saint Thomas More who stated, "I am the King's good subject but God's first." He thereupon lost his head. I suppose it all depends on whether you expect your reward in the here or hereafter. The Pope expects his in the hereafter as, by the grace of God, do I.
Cheers,
Frank
---How long has it been since the Pope placed a country under interdict?---
Anno Domini 1605
Frank
What people are not noticing here is the similarities/ how the European socialist and American Democratic party (at least the ones based on the east and west coast) are essentially uniting their policies... Destroy any sense of religion and individual freedom.
After all, they are "going to take away some things from us for the betterment of the community."
Just a thought.
It's one thing to say if you are a business owner....
btt
"Iniquitous."
Hey, Boys and Girls! Let's get that word into our everyday vernacular, shall we? :)
I'm not even Catholic, and I say, "This Man Rocks!"
Good for him. Already I like his style.
Oh about 800 years.I believe.I like the idea,and Spain would be a good one to do to.
There are many gay republicans too and the catholics have all the molesters. So as a christian republican I say he should clean his own pagan house first.
What the hell are you talking about?
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