ST. LOUIS (MO)
Riverfront Times
By Ray Downs Mon., Jun. 30 2014
The pillars of morality at the St. Louis Archdiocese are not pleased with all this gay-marriage stuff happening in the city.
One day after Mayor Francis Slay granted marriage licenses to four gay couples, the archdiocese released a statement expressing its disappointment over two things church leaders are not exactly famous for knowing much about: getting married and same-sex relationships that consist of consenting adults.
“It is disheartening to see our wonderful city, named after the great Catholic civil leader St. King Louis IX, so eagerly cast aside the laws of our state and disregard the laws of nature,” the statement says. “The fact is, the union of two men or the union of two women is not the same as the union of a woman and a man.”
That’s pretty standard language from a Christian organization condemning gay rights, but the statement gets a little weirder:
“Loving a person does not mean accepting all their behaviors. The Church does not condemn individuals for having same-sex attraction. Persons who struggle with same-sex attraction must be loved with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. At the same time, the Catholic faith teaches that all people are called to responsibility regarding sexuality — whether they are homosexual or heterosexual, priest or lay person. Part of that responsibility means understanding that sex is to be reserved for marriage, and that marriage between a man and a woman is the only kind of union from which children can come.”
Maybe this reporter is reading too much into the statement, but are these words really a subtle explanation for Archbishop Robert Carlson’s recent controversy over his statements about “not remembering” when he learned pedophilia was a crime when he was involved in the cover-up of a priest who admitted to molesting children in Minnesota back in the ’80s?
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