19 Quebec priests break ranks on same-sex marriage
| Cheryl Cornacchia | |
| CanWest News Service |
MONTREAL -- Nineteen Quebec priests Sunday denounced the Vatican's opposition to same-sex marriage and its refusal to allow gay men into the priesthood.
In an open letter published Sunday in La Presse, the priests expressed the strongest public dissent to date on the Roman Catholic church's stand on homosexuality.
In the letter published under the headline "Enough is enough," the priests charge that by considering homosexuality a "disorder," the church is contributing to homophobia.
"There is no reason for the ban on homosexual men from entering the priesthood," said Raymond Gravel, a parish priest in the diocese of Joliette and one of the letter's 19 signatories.
In an interview Sunday, Gravel added, the church has invoked "natural law" to support its current ban against homosexuality, gay marriage and gay priests.
However, Gravel said, when it comes to "the mysteries of life," the Roman Catholic church has been wrong before in its 2,000-year history and it is wrong again now.
Gravel added he and the other Quebec priests who signed the letter felt they could no longer remain silent.
The letter, which runs to a length of about 1,000 words, calls on clergy throughout Quebec to open dialogue at the parish level.
The initiative is a response to the position against same-sex marriage taken by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and the publication of a Vatican directive forbidding gays from entering the priesthood.
On Sunday, no official response was forthcoming from the Vatican or the Canadian Conference of Bishops. The Montreal diocese office was similarly quiet. Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte is out of the country, in Peru.
At Montreal's Cathedral Mary Queen of the World, however, worshippers were instructed to inform themselves and to make up their own minds on the issue.
During the 5 p.m. mass, Rev. Michel de la Chevrotiere mentioned the letter and told people it is up to them to make up their own minds.
However, after the mass in an interview, he said he disagreed with the tactic employed by the 19 priests.
"We're a family," he said. "You go to your family and talk about these things first."
With pressure on the federal Conservative government to reopen the gay marriage issue, the Quebec protest comes at a time of soul-searching and reflection among Roman Catholic clergy.
The subject is expected to come up later this week when Quebec City's Cardinal Marc Ouellette visits Montreal. Ouellette, considered a hard-line conservative, will be in town to speak at McGill University about the direction of the church.
© The Edmonton Journal 2006