Sandro Mangion of the Gay Rights Movement last Sunday took the editor of this paper to task. The editor's capital sin was to support what the Archbishop said about the dangers in the movement in favour of gay marriage. Many adjectives were thrown at the editor, though it seems he was not granted the privilege of being called a fundamentalist.
How dare the Archbishop and the editor of The Sunday Times describe gay marriages as going against the law of nature, fumed Mr Mangion. However, his defence is his downfall: "Furthermore, it would have taken you just a few clicks on your computer mouse to find out that homosexuality is found in around 450 species besides the human race."
Does Mr Mangion want to say that "what animals can do humans can do better"? Doesn't he recognise that the difference between humans and animals is a qualitative one? Does he really expect us to examine what different animals do and try to emulate them?
Mr Mangion sees nothing wrong in the practice of homosexuality and "gay marriage" because there are 450 different classes of animals who engage in this habit! Unbelievable! Mr Mangion's statement is the most homophobic statement that we ever read. Isn't it insulting to justify human behaviour by saying that animals do the same?
But let's put Mr Mangion aside and look at more serious aspects of the attack against marriage and family life that is being embarked on by the campaign to legalise gay marriages in a number of countries.
The archdiocese of Paris has urged better protection of religious freedom after a priest was beaten up while trying to stop a mock gay marriage in Notre Dame Cathedral. Up to 50 members of a gay rights group, Act-Up Paris, participated in the spoof wedding between two women after a June 5 Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Andre Vingt-Trois.
The cathedral's rector, Mgr Patrick Jacquin, received first aid from firefighters after being kicked and punched outside the church when he tried to stop the ceremony, which was led by a man dressed as a priest.
Mgr Jacquin told Agence France-Presse: "This brawny band were savages - I was thrown to the ground, stamped on and beaten from behind on the back of my neck until I passed out."
The head of Act-Up Paris, Jerome Martin, told the news agency that the aim of the 'wedding' was to "urge Catholics to reject the Vatican's retrograde teaching on homosexuality and condoms".
France's Nouvel Observateur daily said on June 7 that protesters chanted "Benedict XVI - homophobe and AIDS accomplice" during the protest, which was followed by a demonstration outside Paris city hall marking the anniversary of the country's first "gay marriage" - eventually declared null and void by French courts - performed last year in the Bordeaux suburb of Begles.
Across the ocean, in Canada, Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler admitted that, under the proposed Liberal Party same-sex marriage bill being fast-tracked through parliament, there would be no guarantees of protection for religious organisations that refuse to marry homosexuals.
Several marriage commissioners in Newfoundland, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan resigned after an ultimatum ordered them to perform the same-sex ceremonies or step down. Human rights cases against those who oppose same-sex marriage publicly, meanwhile - Bishop Frederick Henry of Calgary has had cases filed against him for promoting the Church's teachings - are beginning to pile up.
Bitter controversies have arisen in Spain given the prospect of legalisation of same-sex "marriages" .
"Some mayors proclaim conscientious objection" in their function of marrying these couples, "while Catholic jurists urge the magistracy not to give children in adoption to gay couples", because of the harm that could be done to them, Vatican Radio reported Wednesday.
Back to Europe... Recently the lower house of the Spanish Parliament approved legislation to extend the right of marriage and adoption of children to same-sex couples. The text will be sent to the Senate, where approval is expected.
Disagreement over the legislation has been expressed by key institutions such as the Council of State, the Council of Judicial Power, and the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation.
In addition, citizens groups are planning a popular parliamentary initiative to oppose the law and virtually all religious confessions have expressed their disagreement with the norm.
"A direct confrontation is taking shape in Spain between the promoters" of the law and those motivated by religion or social ethics who "are firmly opposed to this falsification of the family institution", Vatican Radio said.
In an interview last Friday week with the Italian newspaper Il Corriere della Sera, the president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo called for the conscientious objection of Catholics to the measure when it becomes law.
"A law is not right just because of the fact that it is a law," the cardinal said. "Iniquitous things cannot be imposed on peoples. What is more, precisely because they are iniquitous, the Church calls urgently to freedom of conscience and the duty to oppose."
We conclude by referring to a recent speech by Pope Benedict XVI. He explained that marriage is a lot more than the result of social and cultural factors. The question of what is the right way for a man and a woman to unite their lives is founded on the deepest essence of what it means to be a human person, he said.
The Bible reveals to us that we were created in God's image, and that God is love, the Holy Father said. Being an authentic image of God therefore means that we must find the way to live out our vocation to love. And the love expressed between the couple at the moment they commit themselves in marriage must be complete and total for it to be authentic.
Thus, the decision to live together without marrying, as well as the attempts to create "pseudo-marriages" of same-sex couples, are a misuse of our liberty, Pope Benedict XVI said. Such moves, he added, also stem from a refusal to acknowledge the profound spiritual dimension of our human nature.