Free Republic

Corporate media outlets are running salacious headlines that Pope Francis is now allowing “priests to bless same-sex relationships.” The implication from the media is that the Catholic Church has made a “radical” reversal on its stance that marriage is between one man and one woman. This is factually untrue. On Monday, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith released a “Declaration ‘Fiducia Supplicans’ On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings.” In the declaration, the Vatican first reaffirms that marriage is the “exclusive, stable, and indissoluble union between a man and a woman, naturally open to the generation of children.”...

Advocates of same-sex “marriage” present the idea as a step forward for tolerance and respect. But recent developments place that interpretation very much in doubt. Legalizing same-sex “marriage” is not a stand-alone policy, independent of all the other activities of the state. Once governments assert that same-sex unions are the equivalent of marriage, those governments must defend and enforce a whole host of other social changes. Unfortunately, these government-enforced changes conflict with a wide array of ordinary liberties, including religious freedom and ordinary private property rights. It began with the persecution of Catholic Charities in Boston. The archdiocese eventually closed...

SAN FRANCISCO, October 1, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Presiding Bishop of the US Episcopal Church (ECUSA), has said that there will be no reversal of the church's pro-homosexual direction taken in recent years. Speaking to a standing room-only audience at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral, the Most Rev. Katherine Jefferts Schori, the most senior official of the American branch of the Anglican Communion, announced that the Episcopalians would continue to "bless" same-sex unions and consecrate active and unrepentant homosexuals to the episcopate. "[We are] not going backward, but willing to pause," Jefferts Schori said. "All people, including gay and lesbian Christians...

“Their tone, tactics and rhetoric are disturbing” California’s bishops back two of three proposed marriage-protection initiatives The California Catholic Conference, which represents all bishops and dioceses in the state, has decided not to support the toughest marriage-protection initiative now circulating among voters, but will co-sponsor two less stringent proposals. All three initiatives are proposed amendments to the state constitution and have been approved by the attorney general. In order to qualify for the June 2008 ballot, each initiative requires signatures from 694,354 registered voters. VoteYesMarriage.com, a project of the Campaign for California Families, is circulating the initiative the California Catholic...

At the law’s signing Governor Lynch said he believes that the civil unions will not "threaten" marriage – something that Bishop Robinson must also mistakenly believe. Perhaps Gov. Lynch and Bishop Robinson would do well to look across the ocean at Spain, where following the Socialist government's platform - that includes fast-track divorces and same-sex marriages - that country now has the distinguished award of leading Europe in divorces coupled with one of the world's lowest birthrates (ex-immigrants).

In a closed-door meeting this week in an undisclosed site near Baltimore, a committee of Jewish legal experts who set policy for Conservative Judaism will consider whether to lift their movement's ban on gay rabbis and same-sex unions. In 1992, this same group, the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards, declared that Jewish law clearly prohibited commitment ceremonies for same-sex couples and the admission of openly gay people to rabbinical or cantorial schools. The vote was 19 to 3, with one abstention. Since then, Conservative Jewish leaders say, they have watched as relatives, congregation members and even fellow rabbis publicly...

Washington DC, Sep. 23, 2005 (CNA) - A national Catholic advocacy organization says Roman Catholics for the Freedom to Marry is a dissident group that should not be allowed to describe itself as Catholic. The group held a press conference yesterday, condemning the decision of Archbishop Sean O’Malley of Boston to urge Catholics to sign a petition in favor of a state constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriage. The group is organized as a project under the multifaith Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry."Such liberal groups should not be taken seriously by faithful Catholics who follow the teachings...

One can certainly appreciate the hard work the ELCA Church Council performed in trying to strike an acceptable compromise in a conflicted church. It recognized that a large portion of the ELCA firmly believes in the traditional moral teachings of the church that proscribe homosexual behavior and that another smaller portion believes homosexual sex in the context of committed relationships is morally acceptable. The council tried to give the traditionalists their due by apparently maintaining the official teachings and practices of the church for the time being and to give the revisionists their due by allowing for the ordination of...

ELCA Council Drafts, Forwards Three Resolutions on Homosexuality 05-063-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Church Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) developed and forwarded three resolutions to the ELCA Churchwide Assembly this summer. The resolutions address whether or not the church will bless same-sex relationships and whether or not the ELCA will allow people in such relationships to serve the church as professional lay and ordained ministers. The Church Council is the ELCA's board of directors and serves as the legislative authority of the church between churchwide assemblies. The council is composed of 37 members, including the four...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (BP)--The famous Dr. Seuss once told the story of a "young man from Zoad, who came to two signs in the fork of the road." Forced to choose between two directions, the indecisive Zoad simply decided to go both directions at once. As Dr. Seuss explained, "that's how the Zoad who would not take a chance went to no place at all with a split in his pants." That little parable comes to mind with the mid-January release of the long-awaited report on human sexuality conducted by an official task force of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America...

The ELCA's Task Force on Homosexuality has released its recommendations. Note this VERY important comment within all the verbiage about pastoral care and living with differences and so forth. Note this recommendation: As a pastoral response to the deep divisions in the ELCA, this church may choose to refrain from disciplining those who in good conscience, and for the sake of outreach, ministry and the commitment to continuing dialogue, call or approve partnered gay or lesbian candidates whom they believe to be otherwise in compliance with "Vision and Expectations" and to refrain from disciplining those rostered people so approved and...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) on Saturday condemned same sex marriage as an attack on the fabric of society and called on Catholics to combat what he said was aggressive attempt to legally undermine the family. "Attacks on marriage and the family, from an ideological and legal aspect, are becoming stronger and more radical every day," the 84-year old pontiff said in the unusually strong statement. "Who destroys this fundamental fabric causes a profound injury to society and provokes often irreparable damage." The Catholic Church teaches that marriage between a man and a women...

(CNSNews.com) - Two homosexual advocacy groups and the American Civil Liberties Union on Wednesday appealed the case of a lesbian woman who is being denied visitation with the daughter she had with her former partner. Janet Miller-Jenkins is seeking to enforce a court order from a Vermont court that granted her regular visitation with the two-year-old daughter she and her former lover, Lisa Miller-Jenkins, had when they were joined in a Vermont civil union. "My daughter has a right to have access to both of the parents she was born to. I'm in this for her -- she is...

Words The situation as I understand it now is that same sex unions are not recognized in law. However, nothing has changed between opposite sex unions; they are still recognized in law as marriage. Then a court ruled that same sex unions must be recognized in law. Because of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, same sex unions may be recognized in law someday soon. If a union between a man and a woman is recognized as a marriage then we will need some new words to cover same sex marriages and the consequences thereof. My question is this. What...

Published Saturday, July 24, 2004 Court Rules Out Same-Sex Divorce Change in gender is not recognized in Fla. marriage law. By VICKIE CHACHERE The Associated Press TAMPA -- Transgender people cannot marry under Florida law, a Florida appeals court ruled Friday in setting aside a high-profile divorce ruling between a man -who once was a woman -- and his wife. The 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland said people who undergo sex changes are not recognized by their new gender under Florida's marriage laws, which ban same-sex marriages. The ruling affects an untold number of Florida marriages; people are...

Kyla Ford and Eryn Robinson, both 7 and of Anderson Township, hold a sign in support of Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken at Lakeside Presbyterian Church Monday. (Mike Simons photo)| ZOOM | FORT MITCHELL - The Rev. Stephen Van Kuiken was formally renounced by the Presbytery of Cincinnati on Monday for continuing to perform same-sex marriages. The action, taken by a voting body made up of minister members and elder commissioners in the Presbytery, means the pastor of the Mount Auburn Presbyterian Church can no longer serve as a minister and loses his church membership. The vote was 119-45, with...

Bishops Declare Solidarity with Dissenters in New Westminster Diocese: Diocese in the Anglican Church of Canada to Allow Same-Sex Unions Erik Nelson A number of orthodox Bishops in the Episcopal Church USA have signed a letter “declaring our solidarity with those faithful clergy and congregations who have dissociated themselves from the Bishop and Diocese of New Westminster for conscience and the gospel.” The Diocese of New Westminster passed a resolution that would allow the blessing of same-sex unions. A significant number of parishes and priests declared their dissent from the decision, and representatives of nine parishes—representing a quarter of the...