Bishop says Parliament made "terrible mistake" in approving same-sex marriage

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Halifax, Canada, Aug 24, 2006 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Canadian Parliament made a “terrible mistake” when it redefined marriage last year, said Bishop Richard Smith of Pembroke, Ont., to the 800 women present at the annual national convention of the Catholic Women’s League last week.

The bishop told the women in Halifax, Aug. 15th, that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s promise of a Parliament vote in the fall on whether to reopen the same-sex marriage debate, offers “a rare second chance” to revisit the issue, Canadian Catholic News reported.

Bishop Smith, who is the CWL’s national spiritual advisor, urged the group’s 99,000 members across the country to get in touch with their members of Parliament and to address the marriage issue on the parish level.

The bishop reportedly said he believed he could speak for all Canadian bishops when it came to the “incredibly important issue” of upholding marriage as the lifelong bond between a man and a woman.

Bishop Smith also urged the league members to bring the resolutions passed at the national convention last week — on health, the environment, aging, and religious freedom — back to their parishes for grassroots action.

Most of the attention, he said, is focused on moving resolutions up the ladder from the parish level to the national level. He suggested more attention be focused on moving the resolutions back down to the local parish level once they are passed so they can be “put into practice at the parochial level.”

Comments: 8

Subscriber comments:

Published by: mary
Canada 09/01/2006 11:01 AM EST

Would it really surprize you, David, who claims the comments are hurtful and negative, that the statistic is that 48% of pediphiles are homosexual. Compare that to the statistic that 4 to 6% of the general population would call themselves homosexual. Would it surprize you to learn that sodomy is simply the use and abuse of the anus, and that the practise of the same is an unhealthy, violent, anti-social, dangerous, unproductive behaviour, which has been learned, generally by recruitment.
Or maybe you didn't know that Clifford Olson was sodomizing the children that he was killing.

Basing a "marriage" on sodomy is beyond ridiculous. That these people are getting children to adopt means that madness has truly prevailed.

The truth will set you free. You don't need to be a religious person to figure this all out, by the way. Just give your head a shake, and start thinking.

Published by: Charles Lutz
Haliburton, Ontario, Canada 08/25/2006 05:23 PM EST

Bishop Smith and his colleagues should first repudiate the shameful Winnipeg Statement opposing Humanae Vitae of 1968 and then attack its consequences such as homosexualism gone berseck.

Published by: David
Canada 08/25/2006 05:01 PM EST

I am surprised at the negative and hurtful nature of the comments posted in response to this article. Certainly not in keeping with what I was taught in Sunday School about the love and acceptance of the Church. J Robertson, for example, suggests that "homosexual activists" are child abusers. There is no evidence -- none -- to support this hurtful claim. Bob Rice writes about a "calculated attack" on the Sacrament of Marriage. I have never met a same-sex marriage supporter who wanted to alter, in any way, the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage. Bill C38 reflected this, as it dealt strictly with civil marriage. In fact many who support same-sex marriage would be willing to work as passionately to protect your religous freedoms as they do to obtain civil rights for homosexuals.

Published by: Bob Rice
New Hartford, CT, USA 08/25/2006 12:17 PM EST

Bishop says Parliament made "terrible mistake" in approving same-sex marriage.

That was no 'mistake"! It was a deliberate calculated attack on the family institution and a targeted destruction of the Sacrament of Marriage. The same goes on here in the US. Just look at Massachusetts and the Diocese of Boston. Where religious freedom first was harbored in the New World, it is the first to be attacked and to fall. Same sex marriage in Massachusetts and same sex unions elsewhere all begins in the following way. First, the Church is kept occupied with sex abuse allegations and lawsuits brought on by the acceptance of seminarians that never should have been allowed to be ordained. These corrupt and corrupted infiltrators and homosexual offenders masquerading as priests left the church with a blemish and the Bishops were busy with lawsuits and legal issues trying to move and hide the offenders at the request of lawyers and psychologists trying to treat a sin as a disorder (?Disorder? ) instead of protecting the innocent and being more concerned about shepherding the faithful, fighting the homosexual agenda, protesting abortion, attacking human embryo stem cell advocates and the rest of the culture of destruction that seeks to undermine the sanctity of life. Civil rights my Foot! It’s more like uncivil wrongs!

Published by: Marion Rektor
Kitchener, Ontario ,Canada 08/25/2006 10:29 AM EST

The Bishops all across Canada have scandalized their own faith. All the 52 Catholic MP's who voted for Bill-38 should have been excommunicated automatically as this would have shown all Catholics just how important their faith is. Now it is much too late to try to change this serious problem. IT IS ALL ABOUT 30 PIECES OF SILVER AND FEAR OF OFFENDING SOMEONE.

Published by: George Angel
Canada 08/24/2006 11:34 PM EST

Bishop Smith touched on all the right points in his speech to these 800 women in Halifax. The Bishop's statement that the former Liberal Prime Minister made a terrible decision by introducing and passing legisation that legalized same-sex marriage last year has proven quite true. While Prime Minister Stephen Harper is offering a rare second chance to revisit this contriversial issue, it should be mentioned that the former Liberal Prime Ministers Paul Martin and his predeccessor PM Jean Chretien did not allow a free vote because both PM's forced their 40 member cabinet ministers to automatically support Bill C-38 that leagalized same-sex marriages or face loosing their cabinet posts. It was also reported that there were many procedural abnormalities prior to the final vote on this issue in the last Parliament. It is imperative that every Canadian that wants to protect the traditional family between a husband and wife write a personal letter to their MP and to the Prime Minister to express their concerns to strike down bill C-38. While signing a petition at your local church is a good idea each Catholic should write a personal letter to the politicians because it is much more effective. If the Prime Minister is really serious about protecting the traditional family he should wait till he has winning conditions on his side to have this vote or use The Not With Standing Clause of the Constitution Charter of Rights to strike down Bill C-38. Pray for poor Canada!

Published by: George
San Francisco CA 08/24/2006 11:33 PM EST

I'm always incredulous when the North American
hierarchy has the 'nerve' to speak out on such an issue, when they were
"asleep at the wheel"
when it came to the
clergy sex abuse scandal. As I recall,
some Canadian dioceses
settled suits that totaled as many millions
as their conterparts just
'south of their border"
And, what about the Canadian Christian Brothers sex abuse scandal??? I think the good bishops would do well to spend a little
less time on judging a minority group that only want civil rights & more on issues of peace & justice, as does their
colleague Bishop Gumbleton of Detroit. As Our Lord may have said:"
Oh ye hypocites..."
+Our Lady Seat of Wisdom,
pray for us.

Published by: J. Robertson
Regina, Sask. 08/24/2006 10:45 PM EST

It would have been awfully nice for the Bishops of Canada and the CWL to make sure that our children were not sex-educated to death over the last 25 years, and not be exposed to Aids Curriculum which re-defined sexual intercourse to anal intercourse, oral intercourse, and vaginal intercourse. Just those two things would have gone a long way in preventing the homosexual activists from "getting their way" with our children, etc. The Bishops of Canada should be in "panic" mode about now.... but thanks for the help over the years, now that teenage girls are submitting to sodomy, as are young women. Come to think of it, the children were not catechized in Catholic Schools for the last 25 years either.

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