Vatican signals options for protecting gay couples

[Robb]

Never thought I'd see this start happening!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/vatican-signals-options-for-protecting-gay-couples/2013/02/04/ee1e184e-6f11-11e2-b35a-0ee56f0518d2_story.html

Vatican signals options for protecting gay couples
  Text Size PrintE-mailReprintsBy By Alessandro Speciale| Religion News Service, Feb 04, 2013 09:29 PM EST

AP Published: February 4
VATICAN CITY — A high-ranking Vatican official on Monday (Feb. 4) voiced support for giving unmarried couples some kind of legal protection even as he reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, also said the church should do more to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in countries where homosexuality is illegal.

[choy]

I think his point is that we should protect them from persecution.  If being a sinner means we allow them to be persecuted, then we all should be persecuted.  No one deserves persecution, even for something that is wrong.  A wrong does not justify another wrong.  I agree that we should do something actively to protect gays from persecution.  This doesn't mean we will marry them or fight for redefining marriage.  We believe all are created in the image and likeness of God, therefore we should fight for their right to be free from persecution.

[Jetavan]

I think his point is that we should protect them from persecution.

I think he means a bit more than that. He means also that same-sex couples should enjoys some legal rights that help protect them as a couple (social security, disability, and medicare benefits; insurance plan incorporation; visiting rights in hospital or prison; protection against having to testify against your spouse; automatic entitlement to support if divorced; etc.)

Of course, none of this touches the sacramental definition of marriage that the Church proposes.

[choy]

I think his point is that we should protect them from persecution.

I think he means a bit more than that. He means also that same-sex couples should enjoys some legal rights that help protect them as a couple (social security, disability, and medicare benefits; insurance plan incorporation; visiting rights in hospital or prison; protection against having to testify against your spouse; automatic entitlement to support if divorced; etc.)

Of course, none of this touches the sacramental definition of marriage that the Church proposes.

Well, we can't always expect a secular government to follow Church teaching with regards to the law.

[Jetavan]

I think his point is that we should protect them from persecution.

I think he means a bit more than that. He means also that same-sex couples should enjoys some legal rights that help protect them as a couple (social security, disability, and medicare benefits; insurance plan incorporation; visiting rights in hospital or prison; protection against having to testify against your spouse; automatic entitlement to support if divorced; etc.)

Of course, none of this touches the sacramental definition of marriage that the Church proposes.

Well, we can't always expect a secular government to follow Church teaching with regards to the law.

True, but does Church teaching state that two people of the same gender may not have visiting rights in a hospital?

[choy]

I want to read the direct statements by the bishop as opposed to a commentary by a US newspaper which almost always is liberal in interpretation.  Perhaps we can understand what the bishop really means there.

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