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Irish-born Cardinal likens gay marriage to 'slavery,' says it is 'grotesque' and 'madness'

Cardinal Keith O’Brien to lead fight as Tony Blair announces his support for British gay marriage bill

By
JAMES O'SHEA,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, March 11, 2012, 7:52 AM
Updated Sunday, March 11, 2012, 7:52 AM

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Cardinal Keith O'Brien
Cardinal Keith O'Brien


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In a major intervention, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has made clear he “strongly supports” gay marriage and disagrees with Pope Benedict XVI on the issue.

Irish-born Cardinal Keith O'Brien, 73, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, is leading the battle to defeat a gay marriage bill in the British parliament.

He has called gay marriage "madness" and a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right."

O'Brien, an Antrim native, said countries that legalize gay marriage are “shaming themselves” and "going against the “natural law.”

“Imagine for a moment that the Government had decided to legalize slavery but assured us that "no one will be forced to keep a slave."

“Would such worthless assurances calm our fury? Would they justify dismantling a fundamental human right? Or would they simply amount to weasel words masking a great wrong?”

He stated “I think it’s a very, very good example of what might happen on our own country in the present time."

He claimed that “further aberrations would take place and society would be degenerating even further than it already has into immorality.”

Blair, the most high-profile recruit to the Catholic Church in recent times, converted in 2007. He has now made clear he supports a new bill by Prime Minister David Cameron allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

On Friday, Pope Benedict called on all Catholics to block the "powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage."

However, the Independent on Sunday has reported that Blair says he "strongly supports the Prime Minister's proposal."

Blair's move will deeply anger the Vatican as he has remained silent on the issue until now.

When he converted, the Vatican stated his move, prompted by his wife’s Catholic faith, "can only arouse joy and respect."

The bill is said to have a good chance of passing.

A traditional Tory, Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, stated on Thursday: "I have to say I've changed my mind on this in recent years and I'm rather in favor of gay marriage."

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69 Comments

15 - 69 | See all comments

stanJames | Mar 22, 2012, 12:29 AM EDT
I thought raping children was grotesque and madness. And hiding it was ever more so. To HELL with him and his buddies in the hierarchy.

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stanJames | Mar 22, 2012, 12:24 AM EDT
Tehy have dug their own hole with their demonization of gay people, calling them intrinsicly disordered and evil etc. Not the hierarchy will have to suffer with what they have wrought................Gay marriage is coming to virtually all of the westernized world, and in 20 year will leave the catholic church on the same plane with the MUslims.......................All these horrific BS statements are nothing but the hierarchy realizing their power and money will be gone. HOpefully they do not qualify for unemployment insurance. Good riddance to the lot. Maybe they can have fun molesting each other.....BTW google "Pope UNexcommunicates holocaust denier" and you will see what/ who runs the vatican today.

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mayoman | Mar 16, 2012, 01:11 PM EDT
Will this bigotry ever end?

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eiriamach | Mar 14, 2012, 04:26 PM EDT
God bless you, Tommy Nawn! Are you living in Ireland? Or the USA?

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montour | Mar 14, 2012, 10:12 AM EDT
my friend, hughes cuneod died a year ago at 105, he was aworld famous countertenor they live in switzerland and were married in a same sexunion it is now legal in the whole country of switzerland GOD LOVESALL HIS CREATURES AND HERE IS A GAY PERSON WHO DIED AT 106, tommy nawn in the usa, my age is 73

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PEGKELLY | Mar 13, 2012, 06:30 PM EDT
The madness and slavery was the sexual abuse of minors by priests (some of whom are now bishops0 . The record of the Church on slavery is egregious as witnessed by the Indiansin Mexico and what is now California.

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hollabackgurl | Mar 13, 2012, 03:05 PM EDT
Trust the man in the dress and the golden hat.

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eiriamach | Mar 13, 2012, 08:09 AM EDT
@STEVENSTAR, it is not quite as bad as it looks on IC. Yes, there are too many Irish-descended American homophobes expressing their prejudices on IC, but notice also that some who actually discuss the issue are reading from the same scripts. There is a coordinated Catholic effort targeting IC. They repeat the same failed arguments; they ignore facts cited by others, and they quickly engage in name-calling and emotional outbursts when challenged. I trust that most visitors simply recognize this campaign for what it is. We know that 71% of American Catholics support civil marriage equality for gays. The Public Religion Research Institute's recent study concludes that “Catholics are more supportive of legal recognitions of same-sex relationships than members of any other Christian tradition and Americans overall” and that “Catholic support for rights for gays and lesbian people is strong and slightly higher than the general public.” On IC you cannot gauge the extent of that support because a determined group of papists defends the indefensible and threatens others with hellfire. With this political effort, the church seems to be "hitting bottom," which is a place where either death or radical change happens.

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eiriamach | Mar 13, 2012, 07:28 AM EDT
The state does not take its definition of marriage from religion. The state has an interest in marriage because stable homes provide the best environments for children to grow up and because the family is a basic social unit keeping people connected with each other and protecting their privacy. But we the people decide what marriage is. We have changed the "definition of marriage" many times over the centuries, usually to protect children and women from abuse and exploitation. Because marriage offers benefits to spouses and children, we must not exclude committed same-sex couples from it. Studies have shown that children raised by same-sex partners are as successful as children raised by heterosexual parents, that they are are likely to have heterosexual orientation as other children, and that they develop greater tolerance than children of heterosexual parents. Homosexual children of heterosexual parents face the most severe challenges when their parents, teachers and friends reject their orientation and insist that they change. Lacking support, often victims of bullying, they can become suicidal. Including same-sex couples as full-fledged legal families will help all children grow to be tolerant, cooperative adults and no one's victims. Also, RCC's opposition to same-sex marriage, as Crd. O'Brien's words clearly show, encourages the bigotry and bullying that continue to divide us.

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STEVENSTAR | Mar 13, 2012, 06:42 AM EDT
THIS IS OBVIOUSLY AN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER ... BELIEVE ME YOU ARE SO FAR REMOVED FROM IRISH CULTURE AND HOW THINGS HAPPEN OVER HERE .. BLESS U ... WE ARE DUE TO GET GAY MARRIAGE OVER HERE AND IN A REFERENDUM IN 2009 72% OF IRISH PEOPLE AGREE WITH GAY MARRIAGE ... UNFORTUNATELY AMERICANS ARE WAY MORE HOMOPHOBIC THEN WE ARE ... THE BISHOP SHOULD ALSO BE MORE CONCERNED WITH CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE WHICH HAPPENED OVER HERE AND HAS NOW RESULTED SO MANY IRISH PEOPLE ( IRISH WHO WERE BORN IN IRELAND) NOT GOING TO MASS ANYMORE ... WHAT HAPPENED WAS SICKENING .. AND HAS ALSO RESULTED IN US RECENTLY CLOSING THE IRISH EMBASSY IN THE VATICAN.... THIS NEWSPAER IS REALLY AN AMERICAN NEWSPAPER WITH AMERICAN VIEWS ON IRELAND ITS NOT IRISH AND I TAKE IT IN THAT SPIRIT BUT IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW WHATS GOING ON IN IRELAND READ A PROPER IRISH NEWSPAPER BECAUSE THIS IS VERY WISHY WASHY NEWS ON HERE ..AND A BIT OVER THE TOP DRAMATIC WHISH IS SO TYPICALLY AMERICAN .. GOOD DAY !

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Collette2 | Mar 13, 2012, 02:12 AM EDT
SingleDonald, you gave him food for thought, good on you. I wonder what he tells his fornicating priest's.

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peterson | Mar 12, 2012, 08:27 PM EDT
Only time can tell who WAS right !!

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ludwig123 | Mar 12, 2012, 07:45 PM EDT
Strange he wants to compare same sex marriage to slavery---they are not one and the same. It is the Catholic Church that has engaged in slavery for years---among its clergy--all those Monks and Nuns that almost never were paid anything for their services. Thank goodness for Father Thomas Merton--he helped reform that.

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ludwig123 | Mar 12, 2012, 07:43 PM EDT
This is much more of the stupidity and false propaganda that we are hearing from the Romans (Catholics). This man does not love his neighbor as Jesus taught. As he says ' 'gay marriage is "madness" and a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right". That is wrong--religion is no excuse to deny people their human and civil rights and this is what this man and his boss the Pope-are all about--power and greed --not about God.

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ahlclyde | Mar 12, 2012, 06:39 PM EDT
As you can see from the comments here, many Catholics on both sides of this issue are really screwed up, and I don't want anything to do with that church, and they certainly should have nothing to do with my civil rights. It remains the fact that married couples in the US have over 1600 laws on the books that favor them over me and my partner of 35 years.The procreation argument is especially galling to me. My mother remarried after my father's death, and she and her husband had 25 years of a wonderful marriage, with no possability of procreating. Their marriage was based on love and support and was aided by several laws available ONLY to married couples. What's fair is fair, and marriage is about a lot of things besides procreation for the Catholic minority.

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