NEW YORK, May 25 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Pope John Paul II reiterated the Catholic Church’s stand against homosexual “marriage” today, on the heels of a promotion of such unions by high-ranking Anglican officials and a recent decision by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to all local congregations to perform “same-sex holy unions.”
The highest court of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), ruled Wednesday that its ministers may conduct religious “holy union”’ ceremonies for same-sex couples, as long as the ceremonies are not regarded as marriages. The Court argued that although the church’s “Book of Order” bans same-sex marriage it says nothing about holy unions. St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported yesterday that some church officials plan to propose banning such unions at the meeting of the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly, which begins on June 24 in Long Beach, Calif.
Today, in an address to New Zealand’s new ambassador to the Vatican, Pope John Paul said that “attempts to define the family as something other than a solemnized lifelong union of man and woman which looks to the birth and nurture of children are bound to prove destructive.” The pope refuted the allegation that the Catholic position was out of date, saying that it is “not a matter of attachment to a bygone cultural model which refuses to face facts” but it is based “precisely on a recognition of a fundamental truth.”
(with files from American Family Radio News)