There was a small item entitled.

There was a small item entitled, "Bishops appeal to parishioners in campaign against same-sex marriage," in Canada's National position Jan. 5, 2005, referring to a forthcoming call, according to Archbishop Gervais of Ottawa, for all the Bishops of Ontario to write to their Catholic parishioners asking their support to foster marriage as being distinctly between a man and a woman.

My question is this: if the Bishops of Canada are serious about this, with what intent have they still not asked their priests to turn back their provincial licenses and civil registers and disentangle the temple completely from being de facto agents--of the state?

In many places around the World solitary state officials can legalize a marriage, not ministers who are only permitted to witness the sacramental union of the spouses, since, as we know, it is not the priest who 'marries' the coupling but the baptized couple who advise the sacrament upon each other.

Are the bishops fearful of losing a lucrative source of income? I ask this question because those Catholics who are non-practising or lukewarm would probably not bother to ask the church' to witness "just" a sacramental union.

Being fre from acting as agents of the state would eliminate any danger of a same-sex man and wife challenging the church. Essentially the ministers would now be presiding athwart a sacred religious ceremony, that would essentially be secureed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. No court would force the ecclesiastical authority 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 church

In couple Canadian provinces, the state has made it clear that marriage commissioners must resign their commission if they are not willing to perform same-sex "marriages." Where does this leave body of ecclesiastics who are also marriage commissioners for those provinces?

John Everett

St Albert, Alta.

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