'NO' To Same Sex Marriage (USA)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CNS) – Saying he feels a strong obligation to speak out on issues of moral and cultural import, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence took to the airwaves of a local AM radio talk show Feb. 23, and for an hour discussed why same-sex marriage is not marriage and why homosexual behavior can never be accepted or condoned.

The bishop's remarks were a continuation of his response to an opinion issued Feb. 20 and made public the next day, on Ash Wednesday, by Attorney General Patrick Lynch stating that "Rhode Island will recognize a same-sex marriage lawfully performed in Massachusetts as a marriage in Rhode Island."

In a Feb. 22 statement the bishop said marriage is "a union of one man and one woman" as "instituted by God, blessed by the church and affirmed by every culture throughout the ages."

"The state should not be in the business of supporting other lifestyles or promoting immoral, unnatural sexual activity," which was the "net effect" of Lynch's opinion, he said.

On the afternoon radio show hosted by Dan Yorke, Bishop Tobin suggested that Lynch's sister's marriage Feb. 15 to another woman in Massachusetts, the only state currently to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, had to "affect his view of the world."

The bishop said, "I like him very much. He's a very fine man and does a good job, and is often put in difficult positions. But he's wrong on this issue."

Lynch has told reporters that his sister's gay relationship had no impact on his decision, which he said was based on legal research and issued as a response to a question from a Rhode Island state agency.

Bishop Tobin said he learned of Lynch's decision after returning from Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Hospital.

"Television news reported a decision on gay marriage," the bishop said on the talk show. "I found it ironic and unfortunate; the attorney general was giving me something else to pray about and to repent for."

Still, Bishop Tobin mused, it could have been worse. "He could have waited until Good Friday." Bishop Tobin put the issue of homosexual acts in the context of a broader morality, telling a male caller who identified himself as gay that, just as he is called to celibacy, "I must be celibate as well." And so, for that matter, he said, must be all people who are not married -- a position Yorke noted is not very popular.

Bishop Tobin noted that homosexuality has been opposed in all cultures throughout the course of human history.

Church teaching "is not against gay people," he emphasized. "It is against specific acts. Gay people will listen to this and say, 'You cannot separate our sexuality from who we are.'"

Nonetheless, the bishop noted that abstinence is "another inconvenient truth," alluding to the title of former Vice President Al Gore's documentary on global warming.

"Society says don't talk about it, tries to avoid it. There's no one else (other than the Catholic Church) willing to take on the issues of abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, gay sex," the bishop said. It is the entire religious community and people of moral conscience who must speak out, he urged.

Yorke asked the bishop about his Feb. 22 statement, in which he said it was clear Lynch's "thinking on this issue has been influenced by the relentless gay agenda so prevalent in our state."

Bishop Tobin elaborated, referring to the "political and social pressure of the gay community" in such events as a Valentine's Day "Rally for Marriage Equality" at the statehouse.

"Sometimes people accuse the Catholic Church of imposing its agenda," he said. "Who's imposing an agenda on whom on this issue? That's troublesome to me. I'm trying to energize the Catholic community."

Specifically, the bishop wants individuals to be in contact with their elected legislators to make their views known and to encourage them to uphold the traditional values of marriage rather than eroding or undermining the definition of marriage.

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