Gay Marriage A 'Dangerous Experiment' Says Catholic Church In Scotland

The Catholic Church in Scotland has branded gay marriage a "dangerous social experiment" and dismissed homosexual relationships as nothing more than "friendships" as the SNP agreed to push ahead with same-sex unions. Ministers in Edinburgh finally agreed the framework for legislation on Wednesday in a move described by some campaigners as a "proud day for Scotland".  But a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Scotland said: "The Scottish Government is embarking on a dangerous social experiment on a massive scale.

"The church looks much further than the short-term electoral time-scales of politicians. We strongly suspect that time will show the Church to have been completely correct in explaining that same-sex sexual relationships are detrimental to any love expressed within profound friendships. However, in the short term and long term the Church does not see same-sex marriage as an appropriate and helpful response to same-sex attraction."

The Catholic Church attracted criticism earlier on Wednesday as it emerged that the new Archbishop of Glasgow had suggested a young Labour MP, David Cairns, died because he was gay.

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Church of England warning on gay marriage

British Government proposals for gay marriage would dilute an institution "vastly" important to a healthy society, the Church of England has warned. Responding to a consultation on the issue in England and Wales, the Church said the legislation was "shallow".

Government plans to open marriage to gay couples by 2015 could undermine its status as the state church, it said. The Home Office said religious bodies would not have to conduct gay marriages and that it was considering all views. Gay rights campaigners accused the Church of "scaremongering".

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Catholic Cardinal Authorized $20K To Pay Off Paedophile Priests, Then Railed Against ‘Immorality’ Of Gay Marriage

Cardinal Timothy Dolan has led the charge against same-sex marriage, describing gay and lesbian unions as “unjust,” “immoral,” and unnatural. “This is a very violation of what we consider natural law that’s embedded in every man and woman and we’re really worried as Americans that it’s going to be detrimental to the common good,” Dolan said in a radio interview in June, as New York prepared to legalize marriage equality. “[W]e still worry about the detrimental effect upon society, upon culture, and certainly upon our individual churches.”

But church documents showing that Dolan paid off priests who had been accused of sexually abusing minors suggest that the prominent Catholic leader was willing to overlook these very same religious convictions to help colleagues accused of egregious wrong doing. The documents, obtained by the New York Times, also show that Dolan lied to reporters when he initially dismissed news of the payments as “false, preposterous and unjust”:

Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York authorized payments of as much as $20,000 to sexually abusive priests as an incentive for them to agree to dismissal from the priesthood when he was the archbishop of Milwaukee. […] But a document unearthed during bankruptcy proceedings for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and made public by victims’ advocates reveals that the archdiocese did make such payments to multiple accused priests to encourage them to seek dismissal, thereby allowing the church to remove them from the payroll.

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