Posted on 07/02/2006 1:50:02 PM PDT by NYer
A VATICAN authority on family values spelled out the Roman Catholic Church's uncompromising opposition to same-sex marriages in a newspaper interview published today as a Catholic meeting on the family began in Spain, where such unions are legal. "There are not several models (for marriage), there is only one, which comes from God and is irreplaceable," the Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, organiser of the fifth Catholic World Meeting of Families, said.
"Marriage is not a project of parliament or institutions, which are here today and gone tomorrow," said Mr Trujillo, who is also president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family.
Spain's Socialist government legalised same-sex marriages and adoptions by gays and lesbians legal last year.
Pope Benedict XVI is due to make an appearance on July 8 and 9 at the ongoing meeting in the north-eastern Spanish city of Valencia.
"The decision of the Pope to go to Valencia does not take into account one government or another," Mr Trujillo said.
The meeting was launched yesterday, coinciding with a major gay pride march in which participants expressed support for same-sex marriages and criticised the planned visit by the pope, a vocal critic of such unions.
Mr Trujillo reiterated the Vatican's stance, however.
"We should respect homosexuals and help them," he said, but added that gay marriage was a "false alternative" which caused "great confusion" among young people.
Some 4500 same-sex couples - 80 per cent of them men - have married in Spain since it legalised same-sex marriage in July 2005, according to Spanish justice ministry figures.
Organisers expect 1.5 million faithful at the meeting of Catholic families as well as 29 cardinals from 25 countries and representatives of Greek, Russian and Romanian Orthodox Churches.
Benedict XVI on Friday said families are "the key structure of society" and are based on the "marital union between a man and a woman according to the plans of the Creator".
Homosexual unions are totally lacking in the biological and anthropological elements of marriage and family which would be the basis, on the level of reason, for granting them legal recognition. Such unions are not able to contribute in a proper way to the procreation and survival of the human race. The possibility of using recently discovered methods of artificial reproduction, beyond involving a grave lack of respect for human dignity,(15) does nothing to alter this inadequacy.
CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS
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How fantastic to see something as huge as the Catholic church STAND FIRM on Biblical values when so many churches have gone past wobbly to just plain squishy. Half my family is Catholic, and if my church goes even wobbly, I'm outta there.
vaudine
I am shocked!!! There was never a time in the history of the Catholic religion that they were for this. lol.
Amen to that!
I'm glad to see SOMEONE standing up for the truth, unlike so many pathetic excuses for "churches" these days.
Maybe the press thought that if they pressed hard enough the Church would cave. That's the campaign for condom use for HIV positive couples is all about. Suddenly, there were all these news reports about cardinals saying that it was okay and that the Pope was working on a document outlining the scenario where condom use would be okay. They even trotted out Martini (the former papabile).
Then boom! The Vatican came out and said, "Nope, not gonna happen."
In the wake of the news reports, it created an illusion that the Church was finally gonna modernize. "Look, the princes of the church are even in disagreement with the Church Teaching." Then when the word was "No" we heard the usual kvetching and the good old "primacy of conscience" argument got trotted out.
Have you heard of Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom? They just held a summit in DC last month. Take a look at this picture:
This thread's focus is homosex marriages, but I've heard the above arguments used for that, too. And for women's ordination...and...(fill in the blank).
You forgot the (/sarcasm) comment.
Well, she's not "youth," and she doesn't look very "spiritual," either. Is her group also sponsored by the Ford Foundation, like Catholics for a Free Choice? Or maybe the Packard Foundation, with the new money from Warren Buffett...
Conscience means con-science = knowledge with, or in this case, thinking with the Church. Or as St. Paul said, 'have that mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.' These abort-o-phile "Christians" are under the delusion that "conscience" means "do your thing."
Amen.
How about "trying to hang on to my youth" type? Check out the site: Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom. They're ecumenical.
Is her group also sponsored by the Ford Foundation, like Catholics for a Free Choice?
They're affiliated with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice...yeah, the same one that the Episcopal Church formally signed on to this year.
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