Bishop DiLorenzo responds to Tim Kaine on same-sex marriage.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • September 14, 2016 • In the News; LGBT Issues; Moral Theology; Politics

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n spite of proph­e­sies that he would remain mum, Tim Kaine’s bish­op has respond­ed [link no longer available—SEA, 8/21/19] to the sen­a­tor’s weird and dis­si­dent mum­blings that the Catholic Church would one day approve same-sex mar­riage.

More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s rul­ing on mar­riage, and despite recent state­ments from the cam­paign trail, the Catholic Church’s 2000-year-old teach­ing to the truth about what con­sti­tutes mar­riage remains unchanged and res­olute.

The Church has taught this for 2000 years, and it’s not going to change things just because Mr. Kaine says so. Who is he?

As Catholics, we believe, all humans war­rant dig­ni­ty and deserve love and respect, and unjust dis­crim­i­na­tion is always wrong. Our under­stand­ing of mar­riage, how­ev­er, is a mat­ter of jus­tice and fideli­ty to our Creator’s orig­i­nal design. Mar­riage is the only insti­tu­tion unit­ing one man and one woman with each oth­er and with any child who comes from their union. Redefin­ing mar­riage fur­thers no one’s rights, least of all those of chil­dren, who should not pur­pose­ly be deprived of the right to be nur­tured and loved by a moth­er and a father.

We call on Catholics and all those con­cerned for pre­serv­ing this sacred union to unite in prayer, to live and speak out with com­pas­sion and char­i­ty about the true nature of mar­riage — the heart of fam­i­ly life.

Clear, brief, and no-non­sense. Though some, undoubt­ed­ly, will want to kvetch that DiLoren­zo does not men­tion Kaine by name, he does indi­cate that his words were prompt­ed by “recent state­ments from the cam­paign trail.” Kaine’s words had prompt­ed myself, as well as oth­ers, to call upon the bish­op to cor­rect the sen­a­tor.

If Kaine wish­es to con­tin­ue his sup­port of same-sex mar­riage, let him do so, but let him do so as a dis­si­dent Catholic—not under the guise of a “devout” one. A devout Catholic does not pub­licly defy the teach­ing of the Church. End stop.


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