Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland has broken off personal discussions with Scotland’s first minister over his government’s continued attempt to redefine marriage.
Criticising Scotland’s government for trying to change the definition of Marriage, Cardinal O’Brien told Catholics in a letter read at all masses on Sunday that “marriage is unique” and is a “lifelong union of man and woman.”
In the letter O’Brien announced the creation of a National Commission for Marriage and the Family which will be charged with promotion of the true nature and sustenance of marriage.
“While we pray that our elected leaders will sustain rather than subvert marriage, we promise to continue to do everything we can to convince them that redefining marriage would be wrong for society”, he wrote.
The Scottish government claims it has the right to introduce gay marriage and stresses that no clergy would be forced to carry out the ceremonies.
In March, O’Brien described gay marriage as a “grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right.”
Other churches in Scotland have also expressed concern about the government’s gay marriage agenda, the Free Church of Scotland describing gay marriage as a “truly sad day for Scotland.”
Meanwhile the government has pledged to bring forth a bill on the matter later this year and has indicated that gay marriage ceremonies could take place as early as 2015.
A spokesperson for the Scottish government said: “We intend to proceed with plans to allow same sex marriage and religious ceremonies for civil partnerships because we believe it is the right thing to do.”
“We are equally committed to protecting religious freedom and freedom of expression, and ensuring that religious celebrants opposed to same sex marriage do not have to solemnise same sex ceremonies.”
Meanwhile in the United States, officials of University of Texas at Austin said that no formal investigation was needed into the allegations of scientific misconduct lodged by a homosexual activist against a professor’s research study on the effects of same-sex relationships upon children.
The study published in the July issue of Social Science Research concludes that the children of parents who had same-sex relationships have more emotional and social problems than children of heterosexual parents with intact marriages.
Sources