Catholics support LGBT rights

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To the editor:

Your article on local reaction to the historic vote for marriage equality in Ireland speaks of an “official Vatican statement” which called the passage of the referendum a “defeat for humanity” (“Irish same-sex marriage vote resonates in Riverdale,” June 4). It is important to note that the statement quoted was actually a comment made by the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. While it certainly carries weight and cannot be dismissed — calling it an “official Vatican statement” makes it sound as if it was the result a deliberative process and was meant to reflect something more than what it was. Those words were only the comments of one Cardinal, a high-ranking Cardinal, but readers could easily get the wrong impression.

There are many Catholic leaders who disagreed with the tone of Cardinal Parolin’s remarks. For example, German Cardinal Walter Kasper (often called “Pope Francis’ theologian”), while not endorsing same-sex marriage, said of the Irish vote: “If the majority of the people want civil partnerships, then it is the duty of the state to recognize such rights.” Retired Irish bishop, Willie Walsh, said of Parolin’s comments: “I was quite uncomfortable with that statement. I mean there have been lots of disasters in the world but I certainly would not support the belief that the referendum was among them.” Walsh also said: “[O]ne could hardly look at the celebrations and say it didn’t increase the sum of human happiness [in Ireland].”

As a Catholic, I think it is important to note there are many of us in the pews locally, throughout the U.S. and in the world who see the referendum in Ireland and the movement to give legal rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples, not as some victory of secularism over religion, but as a victory for the very Catholic values of love, justice, human dignity, respect and compassion.

Jack Marth

LGBT, same sex marriage, Catholicism, Jack Marth

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