CALGARY, May 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – “Since homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography undermine the foundations of the family, the basis of society, then the State must use its coercive power to proscribe or curtail them in the interests of the common good.” That was the statement Calgary Bishop Fred Henry made in January which resulted in two as of yet unresolved complaints being filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. Over the weekend Bishop Henry repeated the statement in another pastoral letter and expounded on it.
In the current pastoral letter, Bishop Henry explains about “homosexuality, adultery, prostitution and pornography”, that “Each, in its own way, undermines the foundations of the family.”
He notes that the list “was never meant to be exhaustive as the Catechism of the Catholic Church also mentions: divorce, fornication, rape, etc.”
“The state obviously responds to each of these threats to family life in different ways as it exercises its coercive power,” says Bishop Henry. “The government has a solemn obligation to protect, not re-engineer, an institution that is more fundamental to human life than the state. In a word, it must ‘build fences’ to protect the institution of marriage.”
Bishop Henry clarifies that “The coercive power of the state extends to traffic laws, tax policy, education curriculum, communication regulations, and a whole host of other areas including marriage.” He notes that “in the case of marriage, federal legislation prohibits people from marrying if they are related linearly or as brother and sister, whether by whole blood, half blood or by adoption.”
The bishop confronts those who have accused him of human rights violations saying, “This is not a fascist or Hitler-like position, nor even an anti-homosexual stance, but it reflects Christian teaching on the primordial status of marriage and family life.”
See Bishop Henry’s new pastoral letter in full here.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Human Rights Complaint Filed Against Catholic Bishop for Defence of Traditional Marriage