On January 23, vote for traditional marriage

on Saturday, 01 October 2005. Posted in Same-sex marriage

An issue in the coming election, said the Canadian Bishops

On June 28, 2005, after more than two years of debate, Canada's controversial same-sex marriage legislation (Bill C-38) was passed by a vote of 158 for and 133 against in the House of Commons. Marriage, which was until then “the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others” is now, with this new law, redefined as “the union of two persons to the exclusion of all others,” thus allowing the union of two homosexuals to be called marriage.

To call “marriage” something that cannot produce life goes against plain common sense. To refresh the memory of those who say there is nothing wrong with this new law, here is the official teaching of the Church. The most authoritative document on this issue is the document issued on July 31, 2003 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the present Pope), then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, entitled “Considerations regarding proposals to give legal recognition to unions between homosexual persons”:

“The Church's teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose. No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives.

“There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral law. Homosexual acts `close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved'. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2357.)

“In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from material cooperation on the level of their application. In this area, everyone can exercise the right to conscientious objection.

And now, read what Cardinal Ratzinger said about so-called Catholic politicians who vote in favor of same-sex marriage:

“If it is true that all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians. Faced with legislative proposals in favour of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are to take account of the following ethical indications. When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly, and to vote against it. To vote in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is gravely immoral.”

Despite all of these warnings, many politicians who claim to be “practicing Catholics” voted for same-sex marriages, beginning with Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, who forced all his cabinet to also vote for it. So, out of the 133 Liberal Members of Parliament, only 32 broke ranks with their party by voting against the bill. On the other end, out of the 96 Conservative MPs present in the House, 93 voted against the bill, and only 3 voted for it. 46 MPs of the Bloc voted for it, and 5 against; out of the 19 NPD Members of Parliament, only one voted against it.

Even if gay marriage is now the law of the country, the fight is far from being over, and as the Canadian Bishops said, it will be a definite issue in the coming election (January 23, 2006). In their comment after the approval of Bill C-38, the Bishops said on July 20, 2005:

“Although Bill C-38 has now been approved as federal legislation in Canada, the fundamental and universal reality of marriage remains the exclusive union of a man and a woman for life. From the perspective of the Catholic Church, the new federal statute falsifies moral values and principles. Catholics are to continue to oppose it, and to ensure that all provincial and territorial regulations on the solemnization of marriages provide full protection for freedom of conscience and religion, as guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Unfortunately, there are some Catholics who have promoted the redefinition of marriage, including politicians who have voted in its favour. In this regard, they are in dissent from the teaching of the Church as enunciated by the Holy Father and the Bishops. This is a serious and problematic matter.

“Canadians in general have been and remain deeply divided about changing the nature of marriage and altering its basic meaning. It is clear this debate is far from over, and that it will be a significant issue in the upcoming federal election.”

So if you care about the protection of the definition of traditional marriage, please vote for a candidate who supports this definition. This is not a partisan issue; it is about defending Christian values. The platform of all the parties is basically the same (especially about finance, since none of them dare to attack the present debt-money system), but it happens that there is only one party in the coming election that officially stands up for traditional marriage. On the first day of the election campaign, Conservative leader Stephen Harper said that he would hold a free vote to re-establish the traditional definition of marriage if he becomes prime minister. All the other main parties said they favor same-sex marriages.


 

How they voted

Following is the list of the Members of Parliament who voted for (yeas) or against (nays) bill C-38 on the legalization of same-sex marriages; they will all be judged by God on Judgment Day on the way they voted, but on January 23, it is your turn to judge them:

  Yeas - 158

Nays - 133

 Liberal (95)

Adams, Peter
Alcock, Reg
Anderson, D.
Augustine, J.
Bagnell, Larry
Bains, N.
Barnes, Sue
Beaumier, C.
Bélanger, M.
Bell, Don
Bennett, C.
Bevilacqua, M.
Blondin-Andrew
Boudria, Don
Bradshaw, C.
Brison, Scott
Brown, Bonnie
Bulte, Sarmite
Carrier, Robert
Carroll, Aileen
Catterall, M.
Chan, Ray
Coderre, Denis
Cotler, Irwin
D'Amours, J.C.
DeVillers, Paul
Dhalla, Ruby
Dion, Stéphane
Dosanjh, Ujjal
Drouin, Claude
Dryden, Ken
Easter, Wayne
Emerson, D.
Eyking, Mark
Folco, R.
Fontana, Joe
Frulla, Liza
Fry, Hedy
Godbout, Marc
Godfrey, John
Goodale, Ralph
Graham, Bill
Guarnieri, A.
Holland, Mark
Ianno, Tony
Jennings, M.
Kadis, Susan
Karetak-Lindell
Lapierre, Jean
LeBlanc, D.
Macklin, P.H.
Marleau, Diane
Martin, Keith
Martin, Paul
McCallum, J.
McGuinty, D.
McGuire, Joe
McLellan, Anne
Minna, Maria
Mitchell, Andy
Murphy, S.
Myers, Lynn
Neville, Anita
Owen, Stephen
Paradis, Denis
Peterson, Jim
Pettigrew, P.
Phinney, Beth
Pickard, Jerry
Powers, Russ
Proulx, Marcel
Ratansi, Y.
Redman, Karen
Regan, Geoff
Robillard, L.
Rodriguez, Pablo
Rota, Anthony
Russell, T.D.
Saada, Jacques
Savage, M.
Scott, Andy
Sgro, Judy
Silva, Mario
Smith, David
St. Amand, L.
St. Denis, Brent
Stronach, B.
Telegdi, A.
Temelkovski, L.
Thibault, R.
Torsney, Paddy
Valeri, Tony
Valley, Roger
Volpe, Joseph
Wrzesnewskyj

 NDP (17)

Angus, C.
Blaikie, Bill
Broadbent, Ed
Christopherson
Comartin, Joe
Crowder, Jean
Cullen, Nathan
Davies, Libby
Godin, Yvon
Julian, Peter
Layton, Jack
Martin, Pat
Martin, Tony
Masse, Brian
McDonough
Siksay, Bill
Stoffer, Peter

Bloc (42)

André, Guy
Bachand, C.
Bellavance, A.
Bigras, B.
Blais, Raynald
Boire, Alain
Bonsant, F.
Boulianne, M.
Bourgeois, D.
Brunelle, P.
Clavet, Roger
Cleary, B.
Côté, Guy
Crête, Paul
Demers, N.
Deschamps, J.
Duceppe, G.
Faille, Meili
Gagnon, C.
Gagnon, M.
Gagnon, S.
Gauthier, M.
Guay, M.
Guimond, M.
Laframboise
Lalonde, F.
Lapierre, Réal
Lavallée, C.
Lemay, Marc
Lessard, Yves
Lévesque, Y.
Loubier, Yvan
Marceau, R.
Ménard, Réal
Ménard, Serge
Picard, Pauline
Plamondon, L.
Poirier-Rivard
Roy, J.-Yves
Sauvageau, B.
Simard, C.
Vincent, R.

Conservative (3)

Keddy, Gerald
Moore, James
Prentice, Jim

 Conservative (93)

Abbott. Jim
Ablonczy, D.
Allison, Dean
Ambrose, Rona
Anders, Rob
Anderson, D.
Batters, Dave
Benoit, Leon
Bezan, James
Breitkreuz, G.
Brown, Gord
Carrie, Colin
Casey, Bill
Casson, Rick
Chatters, David
Chong, Michael
Cummins, J.
Day, Stockwell
Devolin, Barry
Doyle, Norman
Duncan, John
Epp, Ken
Finley, Diane
Fitzpatrick, B.
Fletcher, S.
Forseth, Paul
Gallant, Cheryl
Goldring, Peter
Goodyear, G.
Grewal, G.
Grewal, Nina
Guergis, H.
Hanger, Art
Harper, S.
Harris, Richard
Harrison, J.
Hearn, Loyola
Hiebert, Russ
Hill, Jay
Hinton, Betty
Jaffer, Rahim
Jean, Brian
Johnston, Dale
Kamp, Randy
Kenney, Jason
Komarnicki, Ed
Kramp, Daryl
Lauzon, Guy
Lukiwski, Tom
Lunn, Gary
Lunney, James
MacKay, Peter
MacKenzie, D.
Mark, Inky
Menzies, Ted
Merrifield, Rob
Miller, Larry
Mills, Bob
Moore, Rob
Nicholson, Rob
O'Connor, G.
Obhrai, Deepak
Oda, Bev
Pallister, Brian
Poilievre, P.
Preston, Joe
Rajotte, James
Reid, Scott
Reynolds, John
Richardson, L.
Ritz, Gerry
Scheer, A.
Schellenberger
Schmidt, W.
Skelton, Carol
Smith, Joy
Solberg, Monte
Sorenson, K.
Stinson, Darrel
Strahl, Chuck
Thompson, G.
Thompson, M.
Tilson, David
Toews, Vic
Trost, Bradley
Tweed, Merv
Van Loan, P.
Vellacott, M.
Warawa, Mark
Watson, Jeff
White, Randy
Williams, John
Yelich, Lynne

Liberal (32)

Bonin, Ray
Boshcoff, Ken
Cannis, John
Carr, Gary
Chamberlain
Commuzzi, J.
Cuzner, R.
Galloway, R.
Hubbard, C.
Karygiannis, J.
Khan, Wajid
Lee, Derek
Lastewka, Walt
Longfield, Judi
MacAulay, L.
Malhi, Gurbax
Maloney, John
Matthews, Bill
McKay, John
McTeague, D.
Pachetti, M.
Savoy, Andy
Scarpaleggia
Simard, Ray
Simms, Scott
Steckle, Paul
Szabo, Paul
Tonks, Alan
Ur, Rosemary
Wappel, Tom
Wilfert, Bryon
Zed, Paul

Bloc (5)

Bouchard, R.
Cardin, Serge
Gaudet, Roger
Perron, Gilles
Thibault, Louis

NDP (1)

Desjarlais, B.

Independent (2)

O'Brien, Pat
Kilgour, David

 

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