Italian bishop Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini from Locri-Gerace recognizes that gay couples 'should claim some rights, but they can not ask for marriage'

 18 DECEMBER 2012 | BY DANIELE GUIDO GESSA Photo by DaffyDuke

An Italian Catholic bishop said that ‘same-sex couples should have their civil rights recognized.’ Bishop Giuseppe Fiorini Morosini, who is in charge of the Locri-Gerace area in Calabria, recognized same-sex couples’ rights in a letter sent to the churches of his area.

Such a recognition by the Catholic hierarchy is uncommon, but bishop Morosini added: ‘However, same-sex couples are not families. We can not give them the right to a regular marriage.

‘We believe in God and we have to respect the Christian values and rules. I suggest you defend these ideas strongly.'

The Italian Church is analyzing the possibility of a new Italian government wanting to give same-sex couples some rights. The next general elections will be held in spring. Morosini added: 

‘A marriage is a union between a man and a woman, but every couple should have civil rights.’

His stance has been welcomed by Italian LGBT associations, even though the Italian gay movement has condemned his call for ‘traditional’ marriage.Calabria is one of the less gay-friendly regions in Italy. Only a few LGBT associations operate in this area.

via Gay Star News.

Catholic Bishops Divided on Civil Unions

Bishop,

This is getting really interesting. Last year, Archbishop Vincent Nichols raised a flurry of interest (in support and in outraged horror) when he suggested that there could be value in civil partnerships/unions.  The year before that, Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna (and others) suggested that it was time for the Church to shift emphasis from "homosexual acts" to the quality of the relationships. Meanwhile, this year in Colorado, Catholic bishops are rallying against proposals for civil unions - as they have done elsewhere in the US, arguing that civil unions are a slippery slope to full marriage equality. In Italy, a new report from Commonweal tells us of an Italian bishop speaking up for civil unions. Largely ignored today, is the historic fact that when Portugal was considering  a law  to provide for full same -sex marriage, their bishops supported civil unions as an alternative, more acceptable to the Catholic Church.

I wonder - is this a sign of a wider, fundamental split between Catholic bishops - or a division between European and American bishops? Either way, I welcome this. Any public recognition of value in civil partnerships encourages discussion of the value of relationships, as something good in themselves, independently of the fuss over genital acts on the one hand, and the definition of marriage, on the other.

 Italian Bishop Advocates Civil Unions.

Maltastar.com reports that Paolo Urso, the bishop of Ragusa (in Sicily,) has called for civil recognition of same-sex couples. (The UPI report is here.)

He’s not calling for civil marriage for same-sex couples, but for civil unions, presumably for heterosexual couples as well as same-sex couples. money quote:

When two people, even if they’re the same sex, decide to live together, it’s important for the State to recognise this fact, But it must be called something different from marriage.

The US bishops, recall, view the civil recognition of same-sex relationships as

a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source from which society and culture come and which they are meant to serve. Such recognition affects all people, married and non-married…

To my knowledge, the USCCB has not spoken about civil unions for straight couples. (We’ve always just called it “civil marriage.”) So what we see here is two places to draw a line: Urso would have civil unions regarded as different from civil marriage, while the USCCB would draw the line between heterosexual and homosexual couples.

- dotCommonweal 

Related articles

• "Redefinition" of Marriage, Desirable and Undesirable
• Catholics Should Support Civil Partnerships, in Church.
• Archbishop Nichols’ Balanced, Sane Response to British Gay Marriage.
• Marriage Equality and the Church, Updated.
• Polling Evidence: The Gay Marriage Conundrum, for GOP and Catholic Bishops
• 10 Years of Gay Marriage, and the Christian Church
• Queer Families: A Personal, Catholic Case For Gay Marriage
• Pope Benedict’s Strong Argument for Gay Marriage, Queer Families.
• Oz Priest, on the Christian Case for Gay Marriage
• Gay Marriage: Coming (Soon?) to a Church Near You.
• A Catholic Case For Blessing Civil Unions.

• Ill Gov. Pat Quinn Faces Off Against 13 Catholic Bishops (pinkbananaworld.com)

Catholic Church, same sex marriage

Catholic Bishops, Gay Marriage: "the Outer Fringes of Crazy Town"

Catholic mothers, like all others, delight in their offsprings' weddings - and those of other family members. They are not alone. Weddings are the occasions of major family gatherings, where we gather to celebrate with them, cement the family bonds and interrelationships that have been set up by earlier weddings when we catch up with news from those members we only see at weddings and funerals, and lubricate the family bonding with suitable refreshments, music and dance.

Such celebrations apply to all couples, opposite-sex or same-sex. A few months ago, a colleague told me that his son was preparing for a civil partnership with his then boyfriend - and my friend gave me a regular running commentary of the hoops his wife and son were making him jump through in the wedding preparations, from early visits to (gay) wedding shows and expos, to choosing the outfits, to planning the "wedding" reception. When my niece married her wife on a Cape Town beach a few years ago, my staunchly Catholic mother and the rest of the family gathered from across the country to celebrate with her, just as they regularly do for all family weddings.

All this is to do far, far more than simply "congratulate" the new spouses. Yet in New York, a report at Unicorn Booty claims that Archbishop Timothy Dolan has "forbidden" Catholics from even congratulating gay or lesbian newly-weds:

But then the decree takes a sharp right turn and steers right off a cliff into Even Crazier Town, the affluent suburb to the north of Crazy Town proper’s city limits.

Dolan, on behalf of the Catholic Church, forbids Catholics from even being happy for their newly married gay friends or offering congratulations. Failure to comply with this perversion of law from their all-knowing, all-loving god that hates some of the things he lovingly created in his own image will result in canonical sanctions – a fancy way of saying priest court.

Oh, and stay the F away from Catholic churches, homos.

- Unicorn Booty

Now, the writer of this has himself veered off into Crazy Town - there is not a word in the decree to prevent Catholics from congratulating or celebrating with lesbian or gay newly weds, just a ban on doing it on Church property, or by Church personnel. One of the tragic features of (some) bishops' crazed, irrational overreaction to gay marriage, has been the crazed, irrational overreaction to the Catholic Church from (some) secular gay activists.

There is, however, good reason nevertheless to conclude that Catholic bishops' reactions to gay marriage, in the US and in Scotland, have taken them to the outer fringes of crazy town - but not for the reasons  given by Kevin Farrell at Unicorn Booty.