Bishop Sam Aquila of Fargo, North Dakota, is ordering his priests to preach on the sanctity of marriage. He’s also allowing petition-holders to gather signatures in churches for a state constitutional amendment.
“All Catholics have a moral obligation to defend marriage and oppose efforts to legalize same-sex unions as equivalent to marriage,” he wrote. “I want you through your parishioners to obtain signatures in your parish or parishes for this initiative. I also ask that you preach on this matter during the next month in your parishes and present clearly the teaching of the Church to our people.&88221;
Good to see another bishop taking a strong stand on this. I wonder if his diocese’s tax-exempt status will be threatened.
Our new bishop asked that all our dioceses’s priests preach on the sanctity of marriage this last week. Our pastor – a nice (but generally weak and conflicted man) actually managed to say a few words about it – to fulfill his obligation. Something about: “well, in the Judeo-Christian ethic, marriage is between a man and a woman” – and so we should really support that – but of course, we should never denigrate other types of ‘marriage’ contracts, etc. etc. His basic message – we have our kind of marriage, and others have theirs. And of course, he glossed over the sinfulness of homosexual acts – which are part and parcel of gay ‘marriage.’
Finally, now that he’s managed to say something – I’m quite sure we’ll never hear about it again (unless the bishop requires it). We NEVER hear about the tough topics – sin, homosexuality, sexual morality, abortion, contraception. Never.
In our parish, the fight against the redefinition of marriage, against the will of the people, came down to two minutes of morally convoluted gibbeldy-gabble on Sunday morning.
And of course, 9/10 of the Catholics registered at our church were absent from Mass this last Sunday anyway.
Bishop Aquila used to be the in charge of uor seminary in Denver before he was elevated to bishop. His ministry has long been a gift to the Church. I glad he is doing so well in Fargo.