Fidelis denounces group that claims to be Catholic

Washington D.C., Sep 22, 2005 / 22:00 pm

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 of the Church,” said Fidelis president Joseph Cella. “The Catholic Church's teaching on marriage pre-dates the Church itself, and cannot be changed based on the political preferences of the day.

"These people are destructive dissidents who should not be allowed to use the title 'Roman Catholic' in their identity,” Cella continued. He said Fidelis is asking Archbishop O'Malley to consider ordering this group to cease referring to itself as Roman Catholic.

“These groups are peddling an agenda that presumes that Catholic teaching on marriage is open for change," Cella stated.

In June, Pope Benedict XVI reiterated the Church’s teaching on marriage, saying: "The various forms of the dissolution of matrimony today, like free unions, trial marriages and going up to pseudo-matrimonies by people of the same sex, are rather expressions of an anarchic freedom that wrongly passes for true freedom of man."