COLORADO SPRINGS, August 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Colorado Springs’ vigorously outspoken Bishop is not afraid to take a stand. If Bishop Michael J. Sheridan is not always looked upon kindly by the secular media and politicians, it is not surprising: Bishop Sheridan doesn’t mince his words when it comes to abortion, homosexuality and Catholics in politics.
Bishop Sheridan is accused by the media of mixing religion and politics, but for Sheridan it’s a question of principle, not political agendas. He wrote a pastoral letter May 1, 2004 (www.diocesecs.org/bishopsOffice/PastoralLetterMay2004.pdf) stating that not only anti-life and anti-family politicians but also the Catholics who vote for them commit a grave sin and may not receive communion until they repent. Yesterday Bishop Sheridan’s column in the The Catholic Herald contained more straight-talk, this time about marriage. “If marriage means only what any given person says it means, it means nothing” Sheridan writes. Bishop Sheridan pointed out that marriage is a natural institution, not a cultural norm or the result of social consensus. “What has been understood and accepted – albeit not always lived perfectly – as the exclusive lifetime union of one man and one woman in a covenant of love for the procreation and rearing of children is now coming to be understood in some quarters as the union of any two people for any purpose for any amount of time,” Sheridan wrote. Bishop Sheridan warns of the implications of legalizing gay unions: “This opens the door to polygamy and any number of other perversions . . . there will be no turning back.” He identified the movement toward legalizing same-sex marriage as “the result of a small but vocal minority of citizens supported by reckless judges who will legislate from the bench to appease this minority.” For coverage of Bishop Sheridan’s stand on pro-abortion politicians, see www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/may/04051402.html Jmo