Spain's clergy rally support to oppose gay marriage law

[IndianaGreen]

Thanks be to G-d that Spain has a socialist government inmune to the Church's wicked influence!

Spain's clergy rally support to oppose gay marriage law
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
18 June 2005

Bishops in full regalia and legions of nuns from all over Spain take to the streets in Madrid today against gay marriages, in the church's biggest political mobilisation since the death of the dictator Francisco Franco.

"We face a unique situation in the history of humanity," said Jose Antonio Martinez Campo, a spokesman for Spain's episcopal conference. "The Catholic church has encountered nothing like it in 2,000 years."

The bishops' organisation has given unprecedented support to the rally, organised by the Forum for the Family, an association of traditional-minded Catholic groups. Parishes have chartered hundreds of coaches, and the forum expects to attract up to a million people.

Fr Martinez Campo called the bishops' political action "exceptional conduct for an exceptional situation". The gay marriage law, which is before Spain's Senate and is expected to be approved this month, "represents the disappearance of marriage as the union of a man and a woman ... with grave consequences for society," he added.

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=647694

[getmeouttahere]

1. Yeah, the whole point of voting in....

Zapatero was to tke away the Church's power. If they want to continue to be hateful, let them do it where it belongs...in the church.

[IndianaGreen]

4. Zapatero cut the subsidies to the Church that have been in place

since the days of Fascist dictator Francisco Franco.

The Church also opposes the loss of its influence vis-a-vis other religions, not just in Spain, but in other countries. When Pope Jouhn Paul II visited Cuba he spoke against the freedoms enjoyed by other religions under Fidel's Revolution. The Pope took particular aim at Santeria, a mixture of African religion and Catholic symbols.

[Democrats_win]

2. God is Love. Therefore, the nun bushups and peests are against God.

[RoBear]

3. "...nothing like it in 2000 years."

So the church's silence when Hitler was killing Jews was okay? And priests molesting altar boys was not a bad thing? As a childhood Catholic, the church more and more appals me. I have gone from avidly religious to indifferent to open animosity. I told a friend who is a nun that and her response was that she knew exactly how I felt.

[More Than A Feeling]

5. "represents the disappearance of marriage as the union of a man and a woma

Hear that, everyone? If gays marry, heterosexuals can't, and straights that are married, will be unmarried. I wonder, though, if one gay marries, will every straight marriage disappear? Or does one gay marriage= the disappearance of one straight marriage. If so, since gays are clearly a minority, we can expect some straight marriages will survive.

The Spanish Catholic church is making no sense. Do they even listen to the things they say? Or is it just a kneejerk fear reflex? I know which one my money is on.

[mom cat]

10. From the same outfit that brought you the Spanish Inquisition!

Once again, the church celebrates it's intolerance.

[dameocrat]

6. I doubt anybodies marriage is endangered because gays are allowed

to partake. The RC Church is just so tone deaf and insular, it isn't funny.

[LeftCoast]

7. Wide-spread protests again equal marriage - dead silence about molestation

Nice! Way to go Catholic Church!

[IndianaGreen]

8. Cardinal Law was rewarded with a nice cathedral in Italy

and he even performed a Mass for the late Pope, against the protests of the victims.

[LeftCoast]

13. I hadn't heard about the cathedral...

just despicable. One wonders how these people can claim to be good and holy.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Rome on $12,000 a Month (Cardinal Law's new job)

I'll remind our reader that this is the same Church hierarchy that opposes the right of gays and lesbians to marry because it considers it immoral and a threat to marriage.

Rome on $12,000 a Month

The Return of Cardinal Bernard Law

By CHRISTOPHER BRAUCHLI

What does the Lord require of thee but . . . to walk humbly with thy God.

The Holy Bible, Micah

In an era where tolerance of sexual assaults by those whom one supervises is the norm rather than the exception, it is still possible to entertain surprise. And the biggest surprise of all came on May 27, 2004. On that date it was announced that one supervisor was being richly rewarded notwithstanding outrageous tolerance of sexual transgression by subordinates. On May 27 it was announced that Cardinal Bernard F. Law, formerly of Boston, had been given a wonderful new job by none other than the Lord's representative on earth, Pope John Paul II.

During Cardinal Law's tenure, lots of priests under his supervision engaged in inappropriate conduct with young children. Cardinal Law was not present when the offenses took place and the Lord did not see fit to let him know what was going on. Other people did but he didn't take them seriously. By 2002, things had gotten fairly unpleasant for him in Boston and in December of that year he tendered his resignation as Cardinal and moved out of the $20 million three story church-owned house built in the 1920s in which he'd been living humbly as befits a man of the cloth.

<snip>

On May 27 it was announced that Cardinal Law was being given the post of archpriest of St. Mary Major Basilica. The basilica is one of the four most important basilicas in Rome. According to a Vatican spokesman Cardinal Law "will be in charge of the administration of the priests and anything related to the basilica." The official went on to explain, enigmatically, that the post "is not a position of power." That may be meant to insulate the Cardinal from any future lawsuits if it turns out that the priests he administers engage in the kind of conduct he failed to notice that got him in so much trouble in Boston.

Cardinal Law succeeds Cardinal Carlo Furno, a cleric with extravagant tastes. The apartment occupied by Cardinal Furno and soon to be occupied by Cardinal Law is described as palatial. A former Vatican official said: "It's the classical Roman apartment with frescoes on the wall." He said that Cardinal Furno had paid for costly renovations which presumably remain with the new resident. Cardinal Law's old home in Boston is being sold by the church in order to help pay the victims of Cardinal Law's inadequate supervision. Cardinal Law will live in opulent surroundings in Rome far from unpleasant reminders of his past transgressions. His successor in Boston will live in more modest quarters.

http://counterpunch.org/brauchli06032004.html

[CatholicEdHead]

9. It is still a small part of Spain

as the country is sitll in the anti-Franco secular backlash. Authortarism (government/religion) will have a hard time there for at least a generation.

Most people in Spain still back gay marriage.

[msongs]

11. imagine that, child molestors protesting gay marriage! eom

and what percent of nuns are lesbians anyway?

"The Catholic church has encountered nothing like it in 2,000 years."
Ummm wrong, what about when the catholics conducted the inquisiton, the crusades, and aided and abetted the holocaust?

Msongs
www.msongs.com/political-shirts.htm

[Initech]

12. So all this insane homophobia isnt limited to the US?

Wow, who would have thought of it?

[Chauga]

15. Bishops take to the streets to fight gay marriages

Cardinals and archbishops will lead a protest march in Madrid today against the legalisation of gay marriage in the biggest challenge yet by the Roman Catholic Church in Spain to the Socialist Government.

Twenty senior bishops will join up to 500,000 Catholic campaigners on the march against the law which will come into force this month.

Under the legislation, Spain will become the third country in Europe to legalise gay marriage and adoption, after Belgium and the Netherlands.

The demonstration, organised by the Spanish Forum for the Family, will be the first time that the Church has openly backed a protest march against an elected government, breaking a strict ecclesiastical rule. It will be a new low in the deteriorating relationship with the administration of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Prime Minister, over social reforms.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1658531,00.html

[roguevalley]

16. Since my last name is bishop, I was curious about this. Personally,

I think I am accidentally closer to God than these wankers are on purpose.

[Zhade]

17. Fuck the RCC's bigotry, and fuck Ratzinger's hatred.

He's so out of touch with reality it's pathetic.