Well we all knew it was just a matter of time. Two lesbians in the US are suing a Catholic institution for discrimination because the institution will not recognise their "marriage".
One of the women is employed by Catholic St Joseph's Medical Centre in Yonkers in New York and she wants her same sex lover to be covered in her medical insurance as her spouse. The Centre has a policy of not covering same sex partners in their insurance policies, so these ladies are suing the Centre and its insurance company. Both women will not allow themselves be identified, so they are suing under the names "Jane Roe" and "Jane Doe".
We all knew that the assurances given to protect religious freedom and beliefs were not worth the paper they were written on. We will see how this case goes - it will probably go all the way to the US Supreme Court and its ruling will be important in the battle between religious freedom and the homosexual agenda.
We in Europe will need to keep an eye on this - it will be coming to us very soon as various state legislatures are considering changing civil partnerships into marriage. According to EU law if a state allows gay marriage, then there can be no discrimination, so the Church may find herself in a situation where she will be compelled by law to conduct marriage ceremonies for same sex couples.
So it could be the case that if we priests are not doing time for refusing to break the Seal of Confession, we could be behind bars for refusing to marry homosexual couples. Marantha! Come, Lord Jesus!
The important thing is to firmly resist from the start. That calls their bluff. I can't see them jailing priests, but it could come to that. The important thing is not to cooperate, in even small ways.
ReplyDeleteIn Ireland, were the civil law of marriage amended to include two persons of the same sex (not a major step up from the current institution of "civil partnership", recently created, and clearly in my view, unconstitutional) the law could not compel the Catholic Church to carry out a rite of civil marriage for any two persons, including two persons of the same sex, as the Church does not carry out civil marriages, rather the State, by it's laws, recognises marriages carried out according to the rite of the Catholic faith (inter alia).
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