same-sex marriage – NZ Catholic Newspaper

Share truth of family with mercy, help those struggling, pope says

Vatican City (CNS) — Sun, 10 Apr 2016 22:39:02 +0000

By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The same mercy and patience that are essential for building a strong family must be shown to those whose families are in trouble or have broken up, Pope Francis said in his highly anticipated postsynodal apostolic exhortation.echo $variable;

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Same-sex ‘marriage’ devastation spelt out

Rowena Orejana — Sun, 04 Oct 2015 21:09:10 +0000

by ROWENA OREJANA Having same-sex marriage enshrined in law can have catastrophic consequences for the family as an institution, as well as for religious freedom. Leading American author and researcher on public policy on marriage, Ryan T. Anderson, gave this warning at the Family First Forum on August 24 at the Life Convention Centre in

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Trendy views often not founded on fact

Michael Otto — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 04:11:01 +0000

by Ben Johnson One of the great quotations of our time is from James Burnham, a former Trotskyite Communist-turned-conservative who became an editor at National Review. Fifty years ago, he wrote in his book Suicide of the West that “Modern liberalism, for most liberals, is not a consciously understood set of rational beliefs, but a

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News-making school sticks to Church line

NZ Catholic Staff — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 04:11:00 +0000

by NZ CATHOLIC staff
WHANGAREI — A Catholic college, from which a teacher lost his job after supporting a protest about same-sex marriage, has emphasised the need for adherence to Catholic teaching.
A media storm erupted after teacher Nigel Studdart was suspended from, and then left, his job as a science teacher at Pompallier College in Whangarei after reportedly encouraging students to wear wrist bands supporting gay rights.
The wrist bands were part of a protest against comments by principal Richard Stanton in the August 24 school newsletter, in an article titled “Keeping Marriage Sacred”. Mr Stanton wrote that same-sex couples might be more disposed to a mindset that sees children as an entitlement or right, and therefore as commodities or possessions, rather than gifts. He acknowledged in the newsletter that possessive parents are not exclusively found in same-sex relationships.
Some students at the school reacted by setting up a Facebook page called “Support Gay Rights at Pom”.
After a four hour meeting on September 18, the college’s Board of Trustees reportedly issued the following statement: “The Pompallier Catholic College BOT advises the school community that Nigel Studdart will not be returning to the College as a teacher. We wish him well for the future.”
It was widely reported that Mr Studdart was dismissed.
NZ Catholic asked the board about the Catholic special character aspects of employment contracts and job descriptions that staff sign up to, as well as the school’s media policy, its pastoral practice for students who have same-sex attraction and the level of community support it has.
The board did not supply answers.
In a newsletter dated September 21, Mr Stanton did not mention Mr Studdart, but did discuss the implications of the school’s motto: “Diligere Verum, Love the Truth.”
“Our college motto presents a clear challenge to all who are associated with our college. It is an admonition to parents in their guidance of children, to staff in their ethical conduct and academic pursuit, and to students in their learning,” Mr Stanton wrote.
“I have little doubt that it was carefully chosen to guide and nurture the on-going life of our college.”
After discussing the difficulties of living in accordance with truth and how the Church’s understanding of, and search for, truth is done in community and not through individual revelation, Mr Stanton wrote that as a Catholic college, “we give allegiance to the truth as discerned by our Catholic community and endorsed by its designated authority (bishops)”.
“Our students, staff and parents need to be both aware of and open to this truth.”
Mr Stanton discussed the development of doctrine and the use of informed intellect in decision making.
Referring to ethical codes within professions, Mr Stanton wrote that they represent what is understood to be true for “that particular body of people”.
“If an individual finds adherence to a code to be problematic, they would need to evaluate the relative merits of remaining within that fraternity, whether it be a profession, a religious body or a college with designated special character.”
Mr Studdart is reportedly considering taking legal action against the school.

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Australian archbishop: Same-sex marriage dismantles key institution

Michael Otto — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:38:54 +0000

PERTH, Australia (CNS) — Same-sex “marriage” is not an extension of marriage rights but a dismantling of an institution on which the well-being of societies depend, wrote an Australian archbishop.
Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth wrote his comments in the archdiocesan newspaper, The Record, before heading off as one of Australia’s two elected delegates to the world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization at the Vatican. The role of the family and the Church’s values, including “the dignity and complementary nature of man and woman, created in the image of God”, are expected to be topics at the synod.
In September, same-sex marriage proposals were defeated in the Australian federal parliament and the Tasmanian state parliament. South Australia is set to be the next battleground, with a gay-marriage bill expected to be debated in the state’s parliament early next year.
Archbishop Costelloe wrote that any “attempt to redefine marriage in such a way as to sever the link between the love of the partners in the marriage and the rights and needs of their children is a misuse of the state’s power”.
“Our governments did not create the institution of marriage, and they should not seek to dismantle it by altering its fundamental character,” he wrote. “Rather, as many commentators have noted, the foundational role which families play in the well-being of a society underpins the responsibilities of governments to provide special protection and support to this institution.”
Catholic tradition, Archbishop Costelloe wrote, does not compartmentalise between religious matters and “purely secular matters”. Catholic convictions about marriage are based on the common good and the teachings of the faith, he said.
“We are not so much against things as we are for things. We are for the family and for the rights of children to be raised by their mother and father,” he wrote.
“It is because we are for marriage, for the family and for the rights of children that we stand so firmly against any attempt to legislate to change the nature of marriage.”
The archbishop wrote that it is wrong to accuse people opposed to the redefinition of marriage of unjust discrimination or homophobia.
“The latter accusation is a sweeping generalisation which by its very nature is itself unjust. The former accusation is premised on the notion that marriage should be open to everyone.
“But marriage, as opposed to other kinds of human relationships, is of its very nature the establishing of a union between a man and a woman for the purposes of their mutual love and support and for the raising of their children, should they have any, in a stable environment.
“Same-sex marriage does not extend marriage rights to a wider group of people. It dismantles marriage and creates something else — a relationship which has no essential link to the family which marriage exists to nurture and support.”

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Politicians who support gay marriage are not Catholic, says cardinal

Vatican City (CNS) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0000

VATICAN CITY (CNS) Public officials who openly support same-sex marriage cannot consider themselves to be Catholic, said an Italian cardinal. "It’s impossible to consider oneself a Catholic if that person in one way or another recognizes same-sex marriage as a right," said Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna. The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reprinted a portion

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Archbishop praises New Jersey vote ‘for the truth of marriage’

Washington (CNS) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:00:00 +0000

WASHINGTON (CNS) The New Jersey Senate "stood for the truth of marriage as a bulwark of the common good" with its recent vote to defeat a bill that would have legalised same-sex marriage, said the chairman of the United States bishops’ committee for the defence of marriage. echo $variable;

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Measure to prohibit same-sex marriage to go to California voters

Michael Otto — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO (CNS) An initiative to ban same-sex marriage in California has qualified for the November 4 ballot. Secretary of State Debra Bowen qualified the measure June 2 after a county-by-county check of voter signatures gathered by the sponsors verified they had more than the 694,354 names required to make the ballot. The initiative, proposed

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Pro-family groups will fight California gay-marriage decision

Michael Otto — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:00:00 +0000

SACRAMENTO (CWN) Pro-family groups in California have vowed to wage a political battle against implementation of a May 15 decision of the state’s Supreme Court that would extend legal recognition to same-sex marriages. By a 4-3 vote, the California Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples cannot be denied the right to legal recognition of their

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