Gay Marriages in Canada

[taksal]

i just want to say that i dont have anything against gay people, but i think the new legislation in Canada legalizing gay marriages will have serious effects on the future, especially children. i found this article in the paper, i think it represents what all religions feel, even though its about Catholics. We as sikhs should not hate anyone, but we should stand up for whats right. These days supporting gay people and their rights seems the 'democractic' thing to do. I say we support their fundamental human rights, but lets not help them promote their wishes to change what a marriage is. I understand their marriage is about having hte smae rights as heterosexuals ie inheritance etc, but i feel this is just the next step of what to come

Catholics denounce same-sex marriage in letter

Primate says bill a threat to culture

Warns children would be hurt

MIRO CERNETIG

QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF

Montreal—Prime Minister Paul Martin "threatens to unleash nothing less than cultural upheaval" and hurt children if the Liberal government legalizes same-sex marriages, the Catholic church warns in an open letter released today.

"At the risk of being judged politically incorrect, we need to recall that the bill under discussion is offensive to the moral and religious sensibility of a great number of citizens, both Catholic and non-Catholic," Marc Cardinal Ouellet, the archbishop of Quebec and primate of Canada's Catholic church, writes in the letter.

"We therefore find ourselves at a turning point in the evolution of Canadian society, and the bill announced by the government threatens to unleash nothing less than a cultural upheaval whose neg

ative consequences are still impossible to predict."

Earlier this week, Toronto's Catholic archbishop, Aloysius Cardinal Ambrozic, sent a letter to Martin urging the Prime Minister to maintain the traditional heterosexual definition of marriage.

Ouellet, considered a leading conservative thinker by the Vatican, is also appealing to MPs not to feel bound by party discipline when the Liberal government's same-sex bill reaches the House of Commons, likely in the next few weeks. Martin, a staunch Catholic who is defying his Church's opposition to gay and lesbian marriage, has said he would not rule out calling an election over the issue.

The archbishop's letter — titled "Marriage and Society: For a free and enlightened vote in Parliament" — spends three pages arguing most Canadians oppose same-sex marriage and want marriage to remain defined as "the legitimate union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of any other person." Ouellet also suggests that sanctioning same-sex marriages will hurt and confuse children.

"The fact is that making such a change would alter the institution of marriage by ignoring two of its essential finalities: the procreation and education of children, within the context of the love of a man and a woman, guarantee the future of society," he writes.

"The union of persons of the same sex cannot make this essential contribution to society..."