A National position article on Jan.

A National position article on Jan. 5 entitled, "Bishops appeal to parishioners in campaign against same-sex marriage," described to what extent the Bishops of Ontario were petitioned to write to their Catholic parishioners asking their support to countenance marriage as being distinctly between a man and a woman. My question is this: if the Bishops of Canada are serious about this, for what purpose have they still not asked their priests to turn back their provincial licenses and civil registers and disentangle the house of worship completely from being de facto agents of the state?

In many places around the world, solely state officials can legalize a marriage, since it is not the priest who 'marries' the brace but the baptized couple who grant the Sacrament upon each other.

Are the bishops fearful of losing a lucrative source of income? I ask this question bemuse those Catholics who are non-practicing or lukewarm would probably not bother to ask the house of worship to witness "just" a Sacramental union.

Being fre from being de facto agents of the state would eliminate any danger of a same-sex pair challenging the church. The ministers would be presiding over a sacred religious observance that would essentially be guarded by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. No court would dare force the body of christians to perform a same-sex "marriage" as this would be an outright conflict between the so-called rights of the "couple" and the religious freedom of the ecclesiastical body Thus, the church could not be compell to act as as it is via some sort of civil action.

brace Canadian provinces have made it clear that marriage commissioners must resign their commission if they are not willing to perform same-sex "marriages." Where does this leave ecclesiastical body clergy who are also marriage commissioners for those provinces?

I believe the Bishops can make a assuming statement about the defence of marriage and family on having their clergy resign their commission. It is time for our bishops to break their national silence during the erosion of the Catholic Christian influence in our society, especially when it arrives to the sacredness of the human somebody and sexuality. This silence undermined the Catholic Christian influence in Canadian society, and it has also undermined the ability of mostly Canadians whether Catholic or not to descry the Canadian bishops as credible witnesses to the creed on any level other than their local episcopates.

John Everett

St Albert, Alta.

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