Bishop Tobin Defends Marriage: Gay Activists Fight Religious Exemptions

By Deacon Keith Fournier
7/3/2011
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is a faithful and courageous Catholic Bishop

'Can there be any doubt that Almighty God will, in His own time and way, pass judgment upon our state, its leaders and citizens, for abandoning His commands and embracing public immorality? I encourage Catholics to pray for God's patience, mercy and forgiveness in these distressing times' (Bishop Thomas J. Tobin)

Bishop Thomas J. Tobin

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PROVIDENCE, RI (Catholic Online) - Bishop Thomas J. Tobin is a faithful and courageous Catholic Bishop. He has stood strong in his defense of the dignity of every human person from conception to natural death as well as his defense of true marriage and the family and society founded upon it. He has also tried to help erring Catholics, including Catholic politicians in his own Diocese, to turn from error and turn toward the truth.

This good Bishop is now faced with the continuing moral erosion which has as one of its bad fruits, the movement to eliminate marriage and the family and society founded upon it by giving a moral and legal equivalency to homosexual relationships. Last week New York passed the "Marriage Equality Act" which uses the Police power of the State to force a legal equivalency between homosexual partnerships and authentic marriage between a man and a woman. On Wednesday of this week the Rhode Island state Senate passed HB 6103 which authorizes same-sex civil unions and gives them the same rights and responsibilities as married couples.

On June 3, 2003 the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger issued a directive entitled "Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal recognition To Unions Between Homosexual persons." It clearly rejected any effort to give equivalent legal status to homosexual unions. It restated the unbroken tradition of the Catholic Christian Church for two thousand years. It sought to help Bishops to direct Catholics in Public Life:

"The present Considerations do not contain new doctrinal elements; they seek rather to reiterate the essential points on this question and provide arguments drawn from reason which could be used by Bishops in preparing more specific interventions, appropriate to the different situations throughout the world, aimed at protecting and promoting the dignity of marriage, the foundation of the family, and the stability of society, of which this institution is a constitutive element. The present Considerations are also intended to give direction to Catholic politicians by indicating the approaches to proposed legislation in this area which would be consistent with Christian conscience"

There is a cultural revolution underway led by those on the fringes of the homosexual activist community who will stop at nothing less than legal "equivalency" between homosexual unions and true marriage. Having learned from the verbal engineering of the movement to make the taking of innocent life in the womb through abortion "a right", they are master manipulators of the language. They have reframed their anti-marriage movement as a movement for "marriage equality" much like the proponents of abortion succeeded in calling killing the unborn a "choice."

Catholics must be honest about some in our own house. Purporting to speak for the Church or to promote some "new way", some Catholic Politicians undermine the Church, do violence to the truth, cause scandal, injure the common good and put their own souls in jeopardy. They hide behind a self erected "public/private" dichotomy in rejecting their duty to defend the right to life and protect marriage and the family and society founded upon it. They engage in sophistry to explain away their error. They are not only being unfaithful to the truths proclaimed by their own Church, they are undermining the common good. The directive spoke forcefully to these folks:

"If it is true that all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians. Faced with legislative proposals in favor of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are to take account of the following ethical indications. When legislation in favor of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic law-maker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favor of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral."

The directive also addressed the whole of civil society: "Since this question relates to the natural moral law, the arguments that follow are addressed not only to those who believe in Christ, but to all persons committed to promoting and defending the common good of society." The document presents a lucid, solid, powerful defense of the truth about marriage and family. Yes, it presents this truth from within biblical revelation and the Christian Tradition. However, like all of the Church's Social Doctrine, it also does so from the order of right reason, the natural law, the biological and anthropological order, ...

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1 - 10 of 14 Comments

Robert
1 year ago
Wow. Is it true that name of Jesus and God or no longer welcome in America today. In Houston, TX the director of the Veterans graveyard has set forth a policy where God and Jesus are not allowed to be said or read at any veterans service. Gay marriage, God and Jesus not allowed, abortion on demand, illegal aliens soaking up taxpayer resources, the muslim brotherhood inside the white house, please tell me this is a bad dream. Wake up America! It is time to take our country back. Wake up Democratic Catholics! Please remake your party before it is to late.
It is time to stand up and be heard. It won't be long when priests and bishops will be arrested for speaking out against the sin of homosexual behavior. Well, at least a few will speak out against it. The time has come where you must choose sides and stand up for what you believe. Neither party has a monopoly on christian principles but only one party wants Jesus and God out of society! If you can't figure out which one then please don't vote.
Tony
1 year ago
Those who originally made homosexual actvity/unions/marriages acceptable were heterosexual couples who were contracepting. The rejection of Humane Vitae by myriads of Catholic couples and clergy greatly assisted in creating a climate where sex was no longer intrinsically connected to procreation. Once most people began to accept this break between the unitive and procreative aspects of the marital act the door was left wide open to accepting any type of sexual activity - because babies were no longer a major part of the picture.
Jeff
1 year ago
As much as we all hate contraceptive methods, we must understand that we cannot stop this. We should allow them to sin but retain the voice of the Church. Let God judge upon them for what they have done. For after all not all of this mortal world believes in Christ and His teachings. We should not enforce, but pray for them to see the Truth.
ninov
1 year ago
@Pete - I think if you look at the trend curves, contraception started and then divorce took off shortly after it become widely used. I believe divorce, in its current form, is a product of contraception. No fault divorce laws just added fuel to the fire. Unfortunately, there are those in the church, and even some I know that I"ve seen on EWTN that are going around telling priests they should not talk contraception from the pulpit. Um, where else are you going to talk to the people who barely make it to mass on Sunday. I know a deacon who always has, as hi intentions, 'to end the evil or contraception." The groups he hangs around with always have 4-9 children and there isn't a divorce among any of them. I'm not quite sure how we communicate how evil contrception truly is unless we communicate how evil contraception truly is. It's like people don't spend the time to think, read and listen. I realize it's a deep concept but it certainly is attainable. Alas, too many people don't study philosophy and Metaphysics anymore to learn how to think and how to discover being.
KHanley
1 year ago
Now if only the Bishops could be equally bold on condemning contraception! Why is using contraception not identified as sexually deviant behavior as well? I don't want to be cynical, but maybe those nice looking contracepting heterosexual married parishioners provide too much cash and the church leaders wouldn't want to rock the boat and upset them for fear of losing their funding?
Edgar
1 year ago
@ Steve, the Church has the right to gide the catholics and speak the truth. The Church will resist the silence that somo are trying to impose on her. You talk about ``committed relationships`` as a justification and argument to impose silence it but ignore the point about good and natrural relationships.
The Church gives present us the truth and has not the right to silence. The Catholic Church will not follow the world. The truth is not subjected to the need of some or idiology.
Pete Brady
1 year ago
I know that many point to the "contraceptive" mentality of today's society as primarily responsible for modernity's moral decline but should we not look even further back and honestly admit that it is society's acceptance of divorce that is really at the root of the sexually permissive climate in which we live?
Carla J. Polzin
1 year ago
Please keep up the good work and continue defending the Church, I fear this great nation is succombing to all the powers of hell. May the Sacred heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary help you in the endeavers to keep the faith through the Blood of our Savior.
Steve
1 year ago
Until the Catholic church does more to keep married sacramental couples in their committed relationships, they should not judge those of same-sex committed relationship.
KHanley
1 year ago
If there is a moral equivalency already well established between contracepted marital acts and non-contracepted marital acts, why would we now be surprised that most people consider there to be a moral equivalency between heterosexual acts and homosexual acts? So much time is spent connecting homosexual behavior to all the bad health consequences, and no one bothers to point out how contraception has destroyed the relationships between men and women. And people might say, well, what people do in their own bedrooms is their own business. That isn't true. Our private behavior always has public consequences. Contraception teaches people to view others as something to be used for their own purposes, it teaches people that our actions have no consequences. Contraception teaches us that we can just pursue what we want (pleasure) and never have to pay the price (pregnancy). Contraception teaches us that we don't need to respect the true dignity of another person. Contraception teaches us we don't need to be faithful to another person. Contraception teaches us we can just take a pill or get a simple surgery and our lives will be instantly happy. I don't need to look into the bedrooms of my fellow Americans to know that they have learned these lessons well...just look at our economy, our politicians, our religious institutions...they all now reflect these principles. Maybe, if what we have done in our bedrooms has had such a huge influence on our culture, imagine what our society would look like if we as individuals started making the right decisions in our bedrooms. When our Catholic Bishops and leadership are willing to teach on how dangerous contraception is, then I think they will start to have credibility when they talk about the dangers of homosexual acts. It is much easier to pick on the "fringe" group of "crazy" homosexuals than it is to take on the outwardly nice looking heterosexual parishioners who have been militant for years now in protecting their own version of sexual deviancy.

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