Canada Says Gay Marriage Up to Parliament, Not Pope
Tue September 7, 2004 12:52 PM GMT-04:00
Randall PalmerOTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will take note of Pope John Paul's opposition to gay marriage, but its legality will be decided by Parliament, the government said on Tuesday.
The Pope launched a broadside on Saturday at Ottawa's moves to make gay marriage legal across the country. Courts have already legalized same-sex marriage in three of the nation's most populous provinces.
The Pope made his remarks -- later publicly distributed -- to Canada's new ambassador to the Vatican, Donald Smith, as Smith presented his new credentials.
"It's the expression of a view, an important one at that," said Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for Canada's foreign ministry.
"But in the end, as the ambassador said to the Pope, it is the Parliament that will determine what Canadian law will be, taking into account all views including the Church's and the Pope's."
About 43 percent of Canada's 32 million people identify themselves as Roman Catholic, among them Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin, who has voiced his support for gay marriage despite his regular attendance at church.
Martin's Liberal predecessor, Jean Chretien, also a Roman Catholic, had staunchly resisted Church influence on public policy and had also pushed for gay marriage.
"Established by the Creator with its own nature and purpose, and preserved in natural moral law, the institution of marriage necessarily entails the complementarity of husbands and wives who participate in God's creative activity through the raising of children," the Pope said on Saturday.
"Spouses thereby ensure the survival of society and culture, and rightly deserve specific and categorical legal recognition by the state."
The Pope added: "Any attempts to change the meaning of the word 'spouse' contradict right reason: legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage."
The Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case from Oct. 6-8 on whether draft federal legislation to make same-sex marriage legal would be considered constitutional and also whether it would be required under the Constitution.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php? jid=eb4ceb936e3881fb&cat=71df8d33cd2a30df