Politics
Wednesday March 9, 2005
Catholic Church Canon Law on Catholic Politicians Who Support Gay ‘Marriage’
Interview with Ottawa canon lawyer
TODAY'S HEADLINES
E-MAIL
PRINT
OTTAWA, March 9, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – With the same-sex ‘marriage’ issue coming to the fore in Canada and the United States, the issue of Catholic politicians receiving communion while supporting such measures is increasingly being seen as a scandal that needs to be addressed by church leaders. To clarify the issue, LifeSiteNews.com spoke with Ottawa-based canon lawyer Pete Vere, JCL.
LSN: What is a priest to do in a parish where one of his parishioners is a politician who supports gay ‘marriage’?
Vere: The parish priest has an obligation to correct Catholic politicians who support so-called same-sex marriage. The first paragraph of canon 528 stipulates: “The parish priest has the obligation of ensuring that the word of God is proclaimed in its entirety to those living in the parish. He is therefore to [...] make every effort to bring the gospel message to those also who have given up religious practice or who do not profess the true faith.”
LSN: So Catholic politicians, if they wish to remain Catholic must abide by Church teaching on protecting marriage?
Vere: Especially when it comes to an issue like marriage, this obligation towards the true faith binds the Catholic politician in his or her public life as well as private life. Read the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons". This document clearly expresses where Catholic politicians ought to stand with regards to this issue.
With regards to the Church's true teaching, Cardinal Ratzinger states: “There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. Homosexual acts ‘close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved’.”
LSN: What about a Catholic politician who says they are personally opposed to gay ‘marriage’ but will support such legislation since he doesn’t want to force his religion on others?
Vere: That same document obliges every Catholic politician to withstand any legislation that would corrupt the natural definition of marriage. “When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly," the CDF document states, "the Catholic law-maker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.”
LSN: So then is a Catholic priest able to deny communion to a Catholic politician based on support for same-sex ‘marriage’?
Vere: A politician who supports same-sex marriage acts in a manner that is scandalous to the faithful, harmful to society, and gravely immoral. In keeping with canon 223, “Ecclesiastical authority is entitled to regulate, in view of the common good, the exercise of rights which are proper to Christ’s faithful.” This includes the right to Holy Communion. For as canon 915 states: “Those [...] who obstinately persist in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion.”
Pete Vere, JCL is a canon lawyer and a social and religious commentator. Along with his colleague Michael Trueman, he recently co-authored Surprised by Canon Law: 150 Questions Catholics Ask About Canon Law (Servant Books/Saint Anthony Messenger Press). http://www.surprisedbycanonlaw.com
jhw
Back to TopLatest Headlines
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase out Lab Rats
- Ohio Supreme Court Allows Planned Parenthood to Conceal Abortion Records in Sexual Abuse Case
- LifeSiteNews Canada Day and Independence Day Message. Taking a few days off. LSN returns Monday July 6
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Pro-Life Groups Announce New Colorado Personhood Initiative
- Judge Puts Kibosh on DC Gay "Marriage" Referendum
- Al Franken Win Hands Supermajority to Senate Democrats
- Group Funded by Canadian Bishops' D&P Joins with Others to Denounce the "Natural Family" and "Family Rights"
- Financially Troubled Planned Parenthood of El Paso Closes Doors
- Abortion Linked to Subsequent Pre-Term Births, New Research Again Confirms
- New Orleans Homosexual Couple Ask Fed. Court to Overturn Marriage Amendment
- Slim Hope Of New Ontario Progressive Conservative Party Leader Promoting Pro-Life, Pro-Family Issues
- Pope Accepts Resignation of Bishop Caught Involved in Homosexual Encounters
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Northern Ireland Politician Cleared of Wrongdoing after Reiterating Christian Teaching on Homosexual Acts
- UK Conservative Leader Speaks at Gay Pride Fundraiser
- More Letters to the Editor on Canadian Catholic Development and Peace Scandal (July 1)
- Letters to the Editor - Readers Respond to Development and Peace Scandal
- Watch This Dramatic New Video on Catholic Bishops Conference Funding of Pro-Abortion Groups
Most Read this Week
- Homosexual Duke U. Director Charged with Offering Adopted 5-Year-Old for Sex
- Famed Fr. Corapi Calls Canadian Bishops' Dissent from Humanae Vitae "Catastrophic"
- Pope: It is a Childish Faith to Oppose the Church Teaching on Life and Family
- LifeSiteNews Detailed Response to Canadian Bishops' Whitewash Report on Development and Peace
- Heroically Pro-Life Brazilian Archbishop's Resignation Accepted Under Cloud of Vatican Newspaper Misrepresentation
- Young Children Removed from UK Schools for "Inappropriate Sexual Behaviour"
- Is Pro-Choice the New Pro-Life?
- General Electric to Use Embryonic Stem Cells for Testing, Phase Out Lab Rats
- Swedish Parents Won't Tell if Child is Boy or Girl as Gender Experiment
- Cardinal Rigali: You Can't Claim to be "Reducing Abortions" but Publicly Funding them in D.C.
MORE NEWS: 
LifeSiteNews.com Home Page Last 10 Days Archives Special Reports
Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.