Lots of us haven’t left. Would you give up on medicine or politics because of one poor example eg one bad doctor or politician. And you shouldn’t give up on the Church because of one incident. Only within it can we change it. It has changed before. There are other things to our being besides sexuality. And my identity is not founded on or articulate upon that aspect of me. The Church is more than its position on homosexuality. Besides, it’s position is far more nuanced than is appreciated by the comments on here.

Yes Colette love thy neighbour. That doesn’t mean condone everything he dies. It means speak the truth to him as Jesus Christ did on many occasions even though people wanted to kill him. People don’t really know who Jesus was or what he did and that is why people view Christianity as some kind if mushy love everybody and everything they do…..
Not like that at all…

Fair play to them. 15 or 15000 doesn’t matter, the fact that they went there is still commendable especially on a day when they knew they would be greatly outnumbered. Authorities were obviously concerned about their presence otherwise they wouldn’t have denied then access to the square.

And I suppose this has nothing to do with the fact that virtually every TD that sat in the Dail had a Catholic education, the Catholic Church runs 90% of the education system and the Catholic Hierarchy has been and still is one of the most vociferous lobby groups in the history of the state. Your point would only make sense if there was a true separation of church and state.

I watched a film about the pope last night. Bilbo Baggins the Hobbit met him in a cave and then had a riddle contest with him.

Well the Pope or the Catholic church aren’t doing themselves any favours with the shite they keep coming out with.

What’s your point? Perhaps if the Catholic church didn’t continue to preach hatred time and time again – there would be no grounds to criticise it?

The Catholic church does not preach hatred. Neither though does it preach tolerance. It preaches the truth. And the truth is that homosexual relationships cannot lead to the true fulfillment of the person.

Keith, because someone does not agree with gay marriage does not make them homophobic, are you heterophobic?

He preaches inequality against gays and this encourages homophobia. I’m all for equality and gays deserve to be in miserable marriages too. I love heteroville so hope that answers your question bud.

Your argument is that marriage is traditionally between a man & a woman. There is nothing inherent in any tradition that makes it right. Slavery was quite traditional in the 1800s

What an insightful comment Tony. So basically, what you’re saying is that a man is a man but a woman isn’t a man. Fascinating.

Obviously worthwhile seeing as it has made international news and you are reading it

Even when it is a protest seemingly futile, they still protested. Good for them. Civil rights protests always start small but they build momentum until the old ways are no more like dead leaves scattered to the wind.

Well he is entitled to his own opinion

Just thick?

I think that post just gave me cancer.

James, why?

@Peter – Do you have a source for that claim about the Pope himself being homosexual?

Gavin, Google it. I should emphasise there there is nothing morally wrong or repugnant in the Pope being gay.

“Google it”, So that’s a no.

I’ve Googled it and all I can find is Andrew Sullivan’s (questionable) guesswork, and plenty of others citing it.

I didn’t delete the original comment precisely because there’s nothing at all wrong with him being gay.

I was only asking you to stand over the assertion, because personally I reckon if the current Pope – one who was more vocal about gay issues in his previous job with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith than anyone else – were himself gay, more people would have heard about it by now.

@peter. I just googled “the pope is not gay” and it said he wasn’t. Google is great you can get any answer you want from it.

Nothing at all wrong if he is…and the word on the street here in Rome where I live is that yes he is…but everything is wrong with this mans opinions and the disgusting corporation that he heads up. Blessing potential murders with ease! Anyone who attends a catholic mass this Christmas is indirectly condoning homophobia and murder in Uganda and elsewhere

In Uganda the entire population can now claim refugee status abroad.
A brilliant move by their government to get rid of the Aids victims and all the unemployed by sending them abroad armed with refugee status .

Lots of evidence out there to show these kids do just as well and often better than other kids. One example in relation to education: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/august/gay-study-083010.html Lots of homophobic and religious hate speech out there to contradict scientific findings of course. Love and support are better indicators in successful child rearing than gender. A single parent for example can do better than same or opposite sex couples just as they may do better than he/she giving the circumstances.

As regards the continuation/evolution of the species I think you’ll find this will happen quite happily without marriage. Marriage is an entirely artificial man made concept. It is not required for evolution of our (or any other) species to occur. Marriage is what we define it as. You wish to keep the traditional definition, others wish to change that. As with all societal change some welcome it & some resist it. You identify children and their welfare as the main problem with changing the definition. From what I know the vetting procedures for adoption are very onerous and any couple that passes them is likely to provide a stable loving environment. Stopping same sex couples marrying will not stop them having children. They will still be able to do this through donors or surrogacy. Stopping the change does keep one of the parents from having any legal rights to child in the event of the death of the “biological” parent. Is this a better situation for that child?