It seems the center of Catholic LGBT news right now is Australia, where a non-binding plebiscite over marriage equality has ignited an intense debate in which Catholics are heavily involved.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe
Earlier this week, Bondings 2.0 reported that Melbourne’s Archbishop Denis Hart had threatened to fire church workers who entered same-gender civil marriages, should marriage equality be legalized in the future. Now, a fellow archbishop has clarified the archbishop’s comments.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe, on behalf of the Australian Catholic Bishops Commission, claimed Archbishop Hart’s comments had been misreported. Costelloe said individual bishops would decide how to handle such cases should marriage equality become legal. He continued, according to The Christian Post:
“Normally such issues would be addressed, in the first instance, in discussions between the staff member concerned and the local leadership of the school. The aim would be to discover a way forward for the school and the staff member that preserves the Catholic ethos of the school.”
It took Uniting Church Reverend Ric Holland only about two minutes to place a rainbow-coloured marriage equality sign out the front of St Michael’s Church in Melbourne’s CBD.
By the time he had finished, a crowd of more than a dozen people had gathered at the gates of the Collins Street church.
Standing in the middle of the crowd was a young gay man who asked the reverend: “So, do you reckon you could marry me?”
“I couldn’t help myself, I told him ‘Of course, it would mean a tremendous amount to me to marry you’,” Reverend Holland said.
Die beiden großen Konfessionen Australiens haben sich im Kampf gegen die Öffnung der Ehe für gleichgeschlechtliche Paare zusammengetan: Die anglikanische Diözese und die katholische Erzdiözese von Syndney haben am Montag gemeinsam mit homophoben Lobbygruppen wie der “Australian Christian Lobby” (ACL) und der “Marriage Alliance” die “Coalition for Marriage” gegründet. Sie wollten damit für die “schweigende Mehrheit” sprechen, die am Ehe-Verbot für Schwule und Lesben festhalten wolle.
I am a Christian, a person deeply formed by the Church and its gospel. Even more, I am a Baptist minister. For the past 35 years I have given my life to understanding, living and proclaiming the message of Jesus. It is because of this, not in spite of it, that I’ll be voting “yes” in the upcoming plebiscite on same-sex marriage.
There is nothing that goes to the heart of human identity as much as our sexuality. It is that God-given reminder, persistent and powerful, that we are made for relationship — intimate, covenant relationship. When our need for intimate communion with another human being is violated through the horrors of sexual abuse, cheapened through sexual infidelity, or invalidated through sacraments of love that exclude, it is not only our rights that are threatened, but our identity as those created in God’s image.
One of Brisbane’s leading priests says it’s time for Australia’s politicians to “step up to the plate” and do their jobs by legislating for marriage equality.
St John’s Anglican Cathedral Dean Dr Peter Catt will on Saturday address a marriage equality rally, where he’ll be one of several speakers calling for the federal government to hold a free vote for gay marriage.
Noting he encounters some opposition from conservatives within his church, but also much more support, Dr Catt said it made no sense to withhold marriage from same-sex couples.
“This is the next evolution,” he said. “Marriage has become more and more of a celebration and a commitment of the love between two people.”
“I think society is more than ready for that expression of marriage and the polls back that up.”
A majority of Australian Christians support same-sex marriage and think parliamentarians should vote on the issue as soon as possible.
A Galaxy Research poll of 1,000 Australian Christians has found 54% support marriage equality and 49% do not want the law to be changed to allow civil celebrants to refuse their services to same-sex couples based on conscientious objection.
It also found 61% do not like having conservative religious groups presenting their views on same-sex marriage as though they are speaking for all Christians in the country.
Northern Ireland’s ban on gay marriage is as unjust and un-Christian as the historical sectarian taboo over Catholics and Protestants marrying, an Anglican minister has told an equality rally in Belfast attended by thousands.
Canon Charles Kenny, who has been a Church of Ireland priest for almost 50 years, compared the opposition to same-sex marriage in the region to the historical hostility to mixed religious unions on the island of Ireland.
Kenny was joined by Methodist and Presbyterian ministers in calling for gay marriage to be legalised. The Democratic Unionist party, which now formally supports Theresa May’s minority government, has consistently blocked moves towards marital equality.
Speaking on the steps of St Anne’s, the city’s Anglican cathedral, on Saturday – surrounded by gay rights campaigners, trade unionists and human rights organisations – Kenny said: “There was lots of lobbying against mixed religious marriages and nowadays we are all embarrassed about that. And I think in the future we will also be embarrassed about this ban on same sex marriage.
RNS) The Virginia Mennonite Conference suspended a pastor’s ministerial credentials Wednesday (May 25) because he officiated at a same-sex wedding.
The Rev. Isaac Villegas of the Chapel Hill (N.C.) Mennonite Fellowship and my pastor, is “at variance” with the conference, which belongs to the Mennonite Church USA. The denomination, with some 100,000 members, holds that marriage is “a covenant between one man and one woman for life.”
Will the world’s second largest Catholic country boldly advance LGBT rights? This is the question being asked after Mexico’s president announced a new rainbow political agenda in late May.
President Enrique Peña Nieto said he would ask Congress to legalize marriage equality, non-discrimination protections for same-gender couples seeking to adopt, and the ability for people to self-identify their gender on government records.
These moves are significant and somewhat unexpected from a president whose popularity has waned. Mexicans are split over LGBT issues, though legal rights have progressed slowly through state legislatures and the courts. Last year, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled state marriage equality bans unconstitutional which makes the president’s announcement more a symbolic gesture, but a welcome one, say some pundits. On the adoption item, Fusionexplained the background to the president’s move:
