Prime Minister Paul Martin is standing by his government's same-sex marriage law, even though it might result in him being banned from receiving holy communion.
"I am a strong Catholic," Martin told reporters here yesterday when asked about a gathering of bishops at the Vatican, which will discuss refusing the sacrament to politicians who pass laws that violate church doctrine. But "I am also a legislator," he added.
"And, I believe in the separation of church and state and I believe that it is my responsibility as prime minister to take into account the widest perspective possible and that is what I did," Martin said after a luncheon with Mexican President Vicente Fox.
To claim, as so many self-styled Catholic politicians have, that their faith cannot guide their conscience as legislators, is to make a mockery of both their claims to religious convictions and to adherence to their conscience.
What is the point of a faith that makes no demands upon the conscience? What is the use of a conscience that ignores natural law and the faith that forms it?
A man who will not let his faith guide his conscience will be damned for acting against both.
Source: Toronto Star
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