Angry in the Great White North

With a hat tip to reader wonderwoman, the latest:

About 30 parishioners walked out of Holy Rosary church Sunday when a Catholic bishop's letter condeming Windsor-Tecumseh MP Joe Comartin and his stance on same-sex marriage was read at the end of mass.

Interestingly, the article neglects to mention whether 30 parishioners was a large percentage of those in attendance, or small.

In any case, what do these people have to say? Most of it is predictable:

"We have a gay daughter who is a beautiful person and she should not be denied the opportunity to have a lifelong relationship with someone," George [Crowell] said. "We are disappointed the church made a public issue out of this."

Faulty thinking. Mr. Crowell's daughter's relationships, lifelong and otherwise, are a private issue. It was the government's decision to alter the definition of marriage that made it a public issue, not anything the Church did.

The actions of the bishop infuriated former Tilbury North councillor Robert Sylvestre so much he decided to resign his position Sunday as secretary-treasurer of the ushers club of Annunciation Parish in Stoney Point.

"I absolutely disagree with the bishop interfering with a government issue," Sylvestre said. "As far as I'm concerned, government and religion are two separate things and should be treated the same way.

"I think the bishop is using this to show his power. We were all born with the will to choose and I don't think the church has the right to tell its members how to think."

Again, the notion that this is solely a government issue, when C-38 has implications throughout on all religious institutions.

Moreover, the Church is not telling its members how to think. It is merely following through on the consequences of these members' freely made choices. Indeed, it is an acknowledgment by the Church that people's thoughts and actions matter, for good and ill. Not all theologies profess that, and teach instead that human choices are irrelevant and easily ignored. Catholic doctrine teaches that God's grace can only function in a person who freely chooses to accept it. That choice is made each time you confront a moral dilemma. Joe Comartin faced the dilemma of C-38, and made his choice. He chose to support what the Church teaches as immoral -- making an equivalence between a homosexual relationship and a heterosexual union and the family. Comartin's choice, freely made and publicly announced, means that he has fallen out of grace, and the Church is simply following through, I'm sure with a heavy heart.

The Church, in the person of Bishop Ronald Fabbro, is taking a very public stand on this:

Controversy surrounding Comartin began late last week when Bishop Ronald Fabbro of the Roman Catholic Diocese of London directed copies of his letter be handed out to every parish member and be read aloud during the weekly church service.

He also stripped Comartin of his duties in handling marriage preparation classes and other public church activities at Holy Rosary because of the MP's comments and support for passage of the same-sex marriage bill.

A line in the sand? A fair warning to all that the Church stands for something, and to stand with the Church is to stand for the Church and her teachings?

I think this is bigger than Comartin, or even same-sex marriage. The call was made over and over again in this debate that the Church should "butt out", that this was purely a State matter (see the comments by Robert Sylvestre). On the surface, this is absurd, since C-38 had all sorts of implications for all religious institutions. But aside from C-38 and same-sex marriage, the idea that once the State takes an interest in some sphere of human activity, the Church must vacate it immediately, makes the Church subservient to the State. This is called regalism, and I wonder if this is the real issue the Church is confronting.

The more I see of this, the more I see a confrontation brewing on the issue of regalism (same-sex marriage is merely the catalyzing issue). I think the Canadian Church is seriously trying to push the government into a corner. Arrange things so that an important government official makes a statement not unlike Robert Sylvestre about the Church remaining out of these discussions, and then daring the government to make her stay out.

Will Caesar blink?