Friday, 16 March 2012
The marriage equality debate moves on
We are exhausted. My civil partner and I have worked hard this last week or two. We have attended a number of meetings in Leicester and managed to ask questions of various heirarchs about their views on marriage equality and/or civil partnerships. We have been aghast at some of the examples of homonegativity and/or hate we have encountered. We managed to get questions to the Archbishop of Westminster when he spoke at Leicester University on Tuesday. It was such a pity that his talk was derivative and unimpressive. Afterwards, he was personally warm with us having just recorded an interview with Radio Leicester. The interview had him telling the world that there was a huge difference between a heterosexually married couple and a same sex couple. Although his (and Peter Smith) were more eirenical than Cardinal O'Brien the message is the same. It feels as if there has been a rowing back from the position on marriage that has evolved over the last 4o years that gives equality to the procreative and the affectional ends of marriage. We are back with Darwin and making babies. What an opportunity has been lost? I, along with many other Catholics, feel deeply disturbed by this reactionary position and hope that it will encourage fellow Catholics to speak out (I am not holding my breath).
It used to be said that celibacy was the summit of human achievement for catholics with marriage coming much lower in the pecking order.
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Welcome respite from the Tragedy of Errors surrounding marriage can be found in the RSCs current Taming of the Shrew (in Nottingham for 1 more night before returning to Stratord). It is a celebration of the bestiality in human nature and the fact that incivility can sometimes be more civilizing than civility within partnerships. The Pope's representative makes 2 brief appearnces and on both occasions the 2 main characters bare their backsides at him. His exit following the carnivalesque wedding is hastened by simulated dry humping from Petruchio.
ReplyDeleteAs a heterosexual LE2 Catholic, I have been listening with a deepening despair to the recent pronouncements from Cardinal O'Brien that seem determined to provoke division and discord in a church which in recent years has made some small but important steps towards greater inclusiond equality. I could not bring myself to go to church last Sunday, knowing that it would require me to either a. sit through or b. leave the church in protest during what I knew for me would be the deeply uncomfortable experience of having to listen to the Archbishop of Westminster's letter. It seems however I am not alone. On venturing back to church somewhat nervously this week, I was heartened to hear our parish priest himself in his sermon, speak out about his misgivings about the divisive and regressive tone being struck by the church hierarchy in this debate.
ReplyDeleteI don't often take the time to thank our priest for his sermons (good though they often are), but this week I made a special point of doing just that.