LASALLE, February 10, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Fr. John Walsh, the “Parochial Administrator” (parish priest) of St. Jean de Brebeuf parish in LaSalle Quebec, told MacLean’s Magazine last week, that he is open to marrying homosexual partners in his Catholic church. Last week LifeSiteNews.com reported that Fr. Walsh, whose parish Prime Minister Paul Martin attends when he is in town, said in another interview that he was in disagreement with the Catholic Church over the teaching on homosexuality.
Despite Walsh’s assertion that homosexual partnerings “allow two people to come together in a sinful condition,” he said that he would consider whether he would perform marriage ceremonies for them. “When they confront me,” he said, “I’m going to have to sit down and do a lot of soul-searching.” When the MacLean’s interviewer said point blank that it sounds as if he is in support of gay ‘marriage,’ Walsh responded, “I’m not. I’ve left it open.”
The Catholic Church, however, has not left it open. Anyone can look up the relevant documents in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), the compendium of Catholic teaching. The CCC 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…Under no circumstances can they be approved.”
Walsh implied that the Second Vatican Council, the meeting of Catholic bishops in the early 1960’s that reformed many areas of Catholic life, gave the Church a new definition of marriage that could include homosexuals. He said, “Then Vatican II opened us to new meanings of marriage…Now the Church tells couples they’re creating a community of love.”
Father Walsh told MacLean’s the people in his parish are conflicted over his support of gay ‘marriage.’ He said, “But my responsibility as a priest is to educate people as to what we see as the values of marriage, not to impose one definition on anybody.”
The Catholic Church, however, does not share Fr. Walsh’s squeamishness about giving clear definitions. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, article 1601 says, “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.”
LifeSiteNews.com contacted the Archdiocese of Montreal and spoke to Fr. Toupin, the secretary of Cardinal Turcotte. Fr. Toupin said that the issue of the pastor of St. Jean de Brebeuf Parish is a matter between the Cardinal and the priest.
When LifeSiteNews.com pointed out that the pastor had made it a public matter by making his comments in national news sources he responded that the Archdiocese of Montreal had no comment about the MacLean’s article.
When LifeSiteNews.com asked him about the previous article that appeared in the Globe and Mail, Fr. Toupin would respond only that the Archdiocese had not read the article in MacLean’s. Fr. Toupin then announced that the interview was over and hung up.
Fr. John Walsh St. Jean de Brebeuf Parish 7777 George St. LaSalle, Quebec H8P 1C8 (514) 366-0131
Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte [email protected] (514) 931-7311 (514) 931-3432 Fax 2000, rue Sherbrooke ouest Montréal (Québec) H3H 1G4
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