Catholic bishop supports benefits for gay couples

Ch 6 ^

[narses]

Boston-AP) -- The Catholic Church in Massachusetts may be open to extending some benefits to gay couples.

That was the message of Worcester Bishop Daniel Reilly at today's Statehouse hearing on legalizing gay marriage.

Reilly said the church is firmly against gay marriage and civil unions, but believes that the state should provide gay couples with certain economic and social benefits, including bereavement and hospital visitation rights.

Gay rights advocates welcomed the Catholic Church to the debate, but said that denial of marriage would be a violation of same-sex couples' civil rights.

The Judiciary Committee today hosted the first-ever legislative hearing on the legalization of gay marriage or civil union.

The panel also heard testimony on an abortion bill that would require women to wait 24 hours before consenting to the procedure.

[sinkspur]

Visitation in hospitals and funderal homes are not the issue, it is establishing sexual deviancy as a legal status with the Catholic hierarchy arguing FOR that recognition.

I don't see, plus, they know they're not going to get it.

Do you want the legitimate children of these queers denied their property rights in favor of one of the many sex partners the sodomites choose?

In your world, what kid would want money from a gay father?

People ought to be able to leave their money to whomever they want and, if they draw up a will, they can.

[narses]

Reading comprehension is a problem with you, isn't it? Get help.

[NeoCaveman]

Looks like they are trying to catch up to the Anglicans

A wise man once said that "modernism is the synthesis of all heresies" he was ahead of his time.

[sinkspur]

Reading comprehension is a problem with you, isn't it?

Narses, you're the consummate niggler.

[Jorge]

Reilly said the church is firmly against gay marriage and civil unions, but believes that the state should provide gay couples with certain economic and social benefits, including bereavement and hospital visitation rights.

This sounds reasonable to me.

[NeoCaveman]

Boiling the frog slowly.... one degree at a time.

[Loyalist]

People ought to be able to leave their money to whomever they want and, if they draw up a will, they can.

Are you aware of intestate succession? Do you think family members should be passed over when a man dies intestate in favour of a short-term partner in sexual perversion?

[narses]

It sounds like an endorsement of civil unions to me, a moral anethma for orthodox Catholics.

[Cicero]

As I read this, I think it's just the media trying to make more trouble for the Church.

The only rights mentioned are hospital visitation rights and bereavement rights. It would be cruel and inhuman not to let someone's closest friend visit another in the hospital, regardless of their relationship.

And Christians have traditionally been lenient in allowing people latitude at funerals. In the course of a book I was researching a couple of years ago, I found that after the Protestant Reformation in England, one circumstance where everyone was tolerant was in not asking any questions when a family showed up at the cemetery with a corpse. Was the corpse Protestant or Catholic? Don't ask. Let him be buried in the cemetery if that's what the family want.

[sinkspur]

Are you aware of intestate succession? Do you think family members should be passed over when a man dies intestate in favour of a short-term partner in sexual perversion?

This is an anomaly, and you know it.

Are you against a gay man being able to leave his possessions to his partner?

[NeoCaveman]

Trouble brewing in Beantown ping.

I'd say, this man has.....protected a lot of pedophiles

[narses]

How did "economic rights" figure into your thinking then?

[chuckles]

Just as a side note, I was hearing just yesterday that an 11th century Irish preist prophesy says there will be 110 popes and J.P. is 108. He says 110 will be the antichrist, a liberal that will defile the church. J.P. is trying to stuff the cardinals with conservatives, but alot of them are 70-80 years old. The next pope doesn't have to live 6 months after he's elected so we may be closer than we think.

[narses]

Yep.

[narses]

Reilly told reporters after the hearing that the bill under consideration is a bad solution to a problem that could be solved through simply extending certain benefits, such as hospital visitation, bereavements rights and health insurance, to gay couples.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/10/23/gaymarriage.bishop.ap/

[<1/1,000,000th%]

One of the side effects of "partner benefits" is that you don't have to be gay to get them. We could be paying for every single person's partner's benefits. It'll be another large cost passed onto the customers of these companies. IBM is an example.

[NeoCaveman]

And what's taking so long for them to find a replacement for the bishop?

The head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Worcester will retire Monday, according to a published report. Bishop Daniel Reilly is expected to stay on until the pope appoints a successor.

The link is from a story from May.

[Coleus]

Maybe he can convert Congressman Barney Frank and have him run his male escort business from a church.

http://www.worcesterdiocese.org/contact.html

http://www.worcesterdiocese.org/bishop.html

http://www.macathconf.org/contact.htm

[sinkspur]

Are you aware that over three-fourths of the Fortune 100 extend health insurance to domestic partners?

The bishop is expressing support for a fait accompli.

[narses]

Yep. And when will polygamy or just group communes get those benes? And note well, the "good" Bishop is talking about extending parental rights and recognition to these sodomites too. And the "deacon" applauds this.