Fr Ray Blake's Blog: The Letter of the 1,000 Priests

Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Letter of the 1,000 Priests

This is the letter which appeared in today's Telegraph from a thousand English priests:

Sir,
After centuries of persecution Catholics have, in recent times, been able to be members of the professions and participate fully in the life of this country.

Legislation for same sex marriage, should it be enacted, will have many legal consequences, severely restricting the ability of Catholics to teach the truth about marriage in their schools, charitable institutions or places of worship.

It is meaningless to argue that Catholics and others may still teach their beliefs about marriage in schools and other arenas if they are also expected to uphold the opposite view at the same time.

The natural complementarity between a man and a woman leads to marriage, seen as a lifelong partnership. This loving union – because of their physical complementarity - is open to bringing forth and nurturing children. This is what marriage is. That is why marriage is only possible between a man and a woman. Marriage, and the home, children and family life it generates, is the foundation and basic building block of our society.
We urge Members of Parliament not to be afraid to reject this legislation now that its consequences are more clear.

The signatories are here

13 comments:

Anonymous said...: I am delighted that so many signed. More may have signed if they had been asked. I know some who were not asked. I include myself among the latter!; 12/1/13 5:51 pm
Pétrus said...: I have spotted several priests who are conspicuous in their absence. None of them surprising.; 12/1/13 6:42 pm
Fr Ray Blake said...: I think there would have been more signatures but they were collected over Christmas, so I suspect the letter was overlooked.
There are many priests I know who are not there and I sure they would have wanted to be. I am surprised they are absent.; 12/1/13 7:03 pm
Supertradmum said...: I am proud to see the A and B priests who signed, including the Vocations Director, and several Ordinariate priests from several places. God bless you all. I am so happy for this public action by you. Thank you so much. We laity need such leadership; 12/1/13 7:26 pm
Hidden One said...: Someone should now be gathering the names of those priests who would like to have signed, so that that list, too, can be posted publicly.; 12/1/13 8:03 pm
Trisagion said...: I, too, hope that there’s a mechanism for others to sign. I see my Bishop, all three VGs and over half the Cathedral Chapter of my diocese amongst the signatories and yet I have, today, spoken to eight priests of my diocese who were not approached, all of whom would have signed. I also note that there are over 800 permanent deacons in England and Wales (this legislation doesn’t apply to Scotland (which has its own proposals) or Northern Ireland) and not one of them appears to have been asked to sign. I am one of them and would welcome the opportunity to publicly indicate my support.; 12/1/13 8:37 pm
tempus putationis said...: This letter is one which all faithful Catholics, lay or ordained, should want to sign.; 12/1/13 10:08 pm
Frederick Jones said...: The Penal Laws were applied in the European Commission when Sgr Buttiglione was refused the job of Justice Commissioner because he followed Catholic teaching.; 12/1/13 10:15 pm
Frederick Jones said...: The Penal Laws seem to be in force in the European Commission since Sgr Buttiglione was refused the job of Commissionar because of his religion. Britain seems tet to fall into line.; 12/1/13 10:19 pm
Mulier Fortis said...: Thank you, Fr. Ray, for singing up to this, and for your witness to the Truth in this matter as well as many others. God bless you and reward you for your faithfulness!; 13/1/13 12:44 am
nickbris said...: I've been saying all along that this lunatic legislation will not get into the statute book.As soon as the penny drops that it is not a vote winner it will be shunted off to one side.

Interfering in other regimes will take precedence; 13/1/13 10:43 am
Our Lady of Good Success-pray for us. said...: "The natural complementarity between a man and a woman leads to marriage, seen as a lifelong partnership. This loving union – because of their physical complementarity - is open to bringing forth and nurturing children. This is what marriage is."

Statistically some three percent of British citizens consider themselves gay. Why on earth should politicos have the right to redifine the above to suit 3% of the population, especially when even amongst that 3% only small percent support gay marriage:

The pro-free-market gay writer Richard Waghorne stresses:

"A wealth of research demonstrates the marriage of a man and a woman provides children with the best life outcomes, that children raised in marriages that stay together do best across a whole range of measures."

as nickbris mentioned the penny must drop - if gays aren't particularly for it and the other 95% don't want it - where's the political pay-off? historically when has a minority forced fundamental changes upon the masses who don't want it? and what was the result? rupture rupture rupture - the watchword for the periti reformers of all times.; 14/1/13 3:43 am
Gigi said...: This still feels a bit surreal to me: matrimony remains a sacrament and "officialdom", for want of a better term, may well embroider a situation with layers of legality but it is surely not equipped to pick at sacredness. Thanks for posting this; I'm surprised that the other three quarters of priests hadn't added their names, hopefully merely a matter of seasonal restrictions.; 19/1/13 5:02 pm

Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Letter of the 1,000 Priests

13 comments:

The Lord’s descent into the underworld