Wednesday 3 December 2008

The Catholic Church and homosexuality

I was away from home over the weekend, so missed out on the furore over the leaflet on welcoming lesbians and homosexuals in Catholic parishes. See here and here (I think this latter is a cut and paste of Daily Mail coverage) for an idea of what was going on.

ZENIT is today carrying a report that offers a useful counter balance in terms of its approach to this question. It refers to activity of the Holy See at the United Nations, but sheds a useful light on what might have been said here in the UK.

I have a lot of sympathy with having to respond to a strategy by gay activists that puts together in the same document quite acceptable concerns about unfair discrimination with statements of moral approval of homosexual or lesbian behaviour. I think it is a tactic called "piggy backing", and it led to my resigning from the Executive of my trade union when they adopted an anti-discrimination statement with small print that I could not accept.

The UK Bishops Marriage and Family Life Project could perhaps have been rather more politically aware in preparing their leaflet. In the media response, one can quite definitely see the phenomenon of "piggy backing".

No comments: