---

Quebec Cardinals Respond to Pro-Homosexual Letter by 19 Quebec Priests

By John-Henry Westen

MONTREAL, March 10, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - For the first time Quebec Cardinals Jean-Claude Turcotte of Montreal and Marc Ouellet of Quebec City have responded to the Feb. 26 letter of 19 Quebec priests dissenting to the church's teaching on homosexuality and on the letter of the Canadian religious Conference dissenting on a host of Church teachings including homosexuality, contraception and assisted suicide.

In a press conference today Cardinal Turcotte downplayed the open letter signed by 19 priests, some of them in prominent positions, in the province of Quebec. (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022706.html ). The letter was published in the La Presse newspaper.  "In the 60s there was a book published entitled 'The Church is going to the devil'.  We are used to a certain amount of disagreement," said Turcotte.

Referring to both the letter from the 19 priests and another dissident open letter issued by the Canadian Religious Conference (see coverage: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/mar/06030801.html ), the Montreal Cardinal said, "We will bring to Rome the concerns that our people have here but we have to take into account the reality of the other (Catholic) churches (in other parts of the world)."  The reference was to other national churches which have a far more faithful approach to the teaching of the Church.  "We will never separate ourselves from the other churches," he added.

Cardinal Ouellet, was less dismissive about the dissent.  He noted that while the CRC may proclaim to speak for all religious, it in fact does not.  "The majority of the 4000 members of religious orders in my diocese would not approve what is written in the document of the CRC," he said.

 Back to Top

---

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.