Activists Say Same-Sex Marriage Will Harm Family

NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE, Aug. 8 — Although a few homosexual activists claim that same-sex “marriage” will strengthen families and bring monogamy to homosexual relationships, many others promote same-sex unions precisely in order to disrupt traditional families, the online magazine reported.

One homosexual author praised homosexual unions because they would help end monogamy and the traditional family, while another predicted that such unions would require the law to assume androgyny rather than distinct gender roles.

Journalist Andrew Sullivan, perhaps the most prominent advocate of homosexual “marriage,” also noted in his book Virtually Normal that widespread acceptance of homosexual unions would likely lead to “greater understanding of the need for extramarital [sexual] outlets” for both homosexuals and heterosexuals.

National Review Online commented that supporters and opponents of homosexual unions often agree on the unions' societal effect of undermining traditional morality, but proponents want to see gender, sexual fidelity, and monogamy challenged, while opponents do not.

California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Washington are considering legislation based on Vermont's “civil unions” law, which last year accorded homosexual relationships many of the civil benefits of marriage.

Mass. Catholic Conference Backs Abuse Law

ASSOCIATED PRESS, Aug. 8 — Although a spokesman for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference had spoken earlier against a proposed law that would require clergy to report all suspected child abuse, the conference announced that it would support the bill, the wire service announced.

The bill would add clergy to a list of professionals, including teachers, doctors and day care workers, who are required to report any suspicions of child abuse. Information received in confession or in other “confidential conversations” is still confidential.

A Church youth worker pleaded guilty July 9 to 75 counts of child sexual abuse, and one Massachusetts priest will face trial in September on charges of molesting 70 children.

Cardinal George's GentlerApproach Echoes 1940s Dispute

CHICAGO TRIBUNE, Aug. 3 — The dispute over whether the predominantly black school St. Sabina could join the predominantly white Southside Catholic Conference athletic league echoed an athletic-league battle from the 1940s, the Chicago daily reported.

However, the 1940s struggle, in which a small black Catholic school was shut out of a white athletic league in St. Louis, was only resolved when Cardinal Joseph Ritter banned segregation and threatened opponents with excommunication. Most observers believed that approach wouldn't work today.

Chicago Cardinal Francis George used moral leadership and private phone calls to bring the two sides to agreement on including St. Sabina in the league. Cardinal George backed the school's inclusion in the athletic league despite league parents' fears that their children would be unsafe in St. Sabina's neighborhood.

As Hank Lenzen, chairman of the Southside Catholic Conference, put it, “He's the boss, but he didn't put the hammer down.”