Catholics told to lobby MPs
The Catholic Church is telling parishioners to lobby their MPs to encourage them to vote against same-sex marriage.
A list of talking points has been prepared by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, the Catholic Women’s League and the Knights of the Southern Cross for Catholics to use as a crib sheet- addressing “myths” about same sex marriage and suggesting arguments that Catholics could use against same-sex marriage when talking to politicians.
These include:
a) That same-sex couples should be excluded from marriage because they cannot have children without assistance, while “a married couple [who] cannot have children, for reasons of age or infertility … are still truly married because their lovemaking is designed to give life, even if it cannot give life at a particular point in time, or ever.”
b) That same-sex couples do not truly love each other romantically, because, “to love someone sexually means being able to accept them completely, including their fertility … Sexual acts that are closed to life, including masturbation, anal sex and contracepted heterosexual intercourse, cannot be truly loving … True sexual intimacy requires the union of two different, but complementary, persons – a man and a woman – with an inherent orientation to life.”
c) That allowing gays and lesbians would “trivialise” motherhood and fatherhood.
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) has written to Cardinal George Pell to seek a meeting to explain to him that allowing civil same-sex marriages will not cause Church defined definitions of marriage to end.
They will also ask for the Catholic Church to stop interfering politically on the issue.
“Many Catholics will rightly wonder why the Church instructs them to lobby against two people making a lifelong commitment, when poverty, war and the plight of refugees remain such critical local and global issues,” AME acting convenor Peter Furness said.
“We want a meeting with Cardinal Pell to ask him to respect the right of same-sex couples to marry under civil law in the same way we respect the right of the Catholic church not to marry same-sex couples.
“Just as the Church may refuse to marry divorced partners, even though they can marry under civil law, so the Church will still be able to turn away same-sex partners, even when the law is changed to allow us to marry.”
You May Also Like
Yes Rome has too much blood and child rape on it’s hands to even start to give direction as a real Global fact.
I agree State and Church should be apart;however land+money and votes get very mixed as they always have,and Australia is no exemption.They just never learn and close their minds to all others.
Based on non-evidence based statements they try to ‘yet again brain wash us’. Fuck of ok and I tell you why.
37 years I stayed way from Mass. I went last week only to be greated with a Petition to sign ‘ Stop Gay’s Marriage Actions ‘..name+address required..
I wrote
” this is the work of the Devil and not Christ on the Cross and put here to sign by child rapists of clergy so sign it and see you all on HELL WITH PELL ”.
I search for a more ‘open place’ to go some day…not rushing let me say!!
opps..I have written 96 times to the Church Admin and never had a reply..good luck if you get one.
And after about a week the local Bishop and others still have not managed to respond to this simple letter asking them to do nothing else but condemn homophobic/transphobic/intersexphobic bullying in schools and in public.
Can i dare to hope the reply is still in the mail caught in the Christmas post?
http://equallovearmidale.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/an-open-letter-to-armidale%E2%80%99s-churches-and-religious-congregations/
Interesting reading about Dr Pell….
I would of thought he has more pressing issues then what I think are acts of hate against our community.
http://brokenrites.alphalink.com.au
George Pell should remember the last time the church did not separate from the State millions were killed including good and decent priest who challenged this. The Nazi Bishops made Hitler’s job very easy.
We need a separation of Church and State to stop such madness ever happening again.
http://alamoministries.com/content/english/Antichrist/nazigallery/photogallery.html
It seems to me that many Catholics will read only as far (if even) as “Sexual acts that are closed to life, including masturbation, anal sex and contracepted heterosexual intercourse”.
There they will stop reading and quietly dismiss Mother Church’s obsession for micromanaging human sexuality as the invasive nimby twaddle it is.
Ordinary Catholics know, as do peoples of all faiths and none the world over, that these things are a natural and accepted part of life – no less for Catholics than others – and that mawkish lecturing from a self-chosen cabal of ageing male virgins in frocks will not change that fact.
This ossified papal theocracy has tried many times to dictate the nature of personal relationships. Every time, its efforts to instill shame and fear diminish it, morally and numerically, with more and more Catholics turning away from its nonsense demands that are plainly divorced from the diverse lived reality of human existence.
If George Pell doesn’t want gay marriage, he should simply not get one and shut the f*ck up. Living in a free country like Australia should mean not having to live life constrained by the religiously motivated whims and dictates of the George Pells of this world.
George Pell reminds me of the love of the Nazi Bishops to people in our community. I have no doubt he would hold the doors open to the Gas Chambers had he be born a little earlier.
I know many Catholics who get just as frustrated as we do with his antics. Perhaps he needs to come down from his thrown and spend time with some of the hard working priest and nuns, and ordinary Catholics, who I have found do believe in Same-Sex Marriage.
Julia Gillard and Labor do not understand the difference between Church and State. Some other political Parties do.
Just remember that the person behind this, George Pell, has protected pedophiles – and sees nothing wrong in having done so.
So, federal MPs are supposed to canvas the views of their constituents on the issue of same sex marriage, but this article suggests that the Catholic Church shouldn’t encourage its flock to participate in this process? Maybe the motion should have been that MPs can consult anyone except Catholics?
Dave how quick you forget about the Liberals and when they where in power… they are worse than Labour. I’m not sticking up for Labour they are bad but as a track record Labour has done more for the GLBTI community than the Liberals ever have.
“That same-sex couples do not truly love each other romantically…”
Wow, could this be more insulting?
Well now we know what the Catholic Church is doing with our Billions in taxes.
What else do we expect from the Labor Party. They allow Church groups to Lobby and get involved in politics and turn a blind eye to the law regarding not for profits being involved in politics. They do not lose their tax free status, most do not even pay Council Rates.
Labor is the Party that denies us Nusing homes, Health Access, Education and Employment when these are run with the Billions of dollars Labor gives religious groups to run essential government services.
Ask yourself is the Labor Party the party of Civil Rights. Does it act to protect your freedoms from such Churches, or does it fund haters at the expense of us good and decent people.
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals’ freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one’s ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.
Labor, by funding Churches who get involved in politics, is breaking your Civil Rights. You have a right to be angry with Labor. You have a right to be outraged with them supporting organizations that seek to control you in many ways such as if can get married, if you can adopt in many States, seeking to deny you employment, seeking to deny you access to many essential Government funded services.
This is such a piece of crap! It would be good to have all the stats of the so called religious priest that have fooled around with children and they can somehow be forgiven and money pays for this to go away, yet being gay is seen as the harmful damaging thing!
Religion needs to be s choice not enforced on everyones life! Hypocritses!
A spokes-person for a registered charity taking an openly political stance. Where is the ATO?