Surely this won’t be confusing at all to Catholics in Ireland set to vote on marriage.
I do have to wonder what he would say if asked if three people could all get marriage to each other. Or more? I’d bet I’d get some dissembling then.
A Catholic priest has called for a Yes vote in the marriage equality referendum in May on the grounds of “respect for the freedom of others who differ from us”. Limerick-based Augustinian priest Fr Iggy O’Donovan, writing in today’s Irish Times, recalls the gospel passage where Jesus “tells us to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”.
When people vote, “we are giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s. In a democracy, Caesar is the people”. Churches, he says, “have views, ideals and laws about the family, and they quite properly teach their members about those views. . . But when we become legislators, as we do when we vote in referendums, we legislate as citizens for all our fellow citizens.”
He says: “It is possible to have deep and passionately-held convictions without seeking to have those convictions imposed by the State on fellow citizens who do not share them”…
He concludes that “respect for the freedom of others who differ from us is part and parcel of the faith we profess. For these and for other reasons I will be voting Yes”.
Look, I understand that people don’t want to be called bigots. And that’s what it’s come to. If you’re for traditional marriage, you’re called a bigot. But Catholics shouldn’t be as concerned about what we’re called by people; we should rather be concerned with what God is calling us to do.
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