Two Liberal backbenchers in the Australian federal parliament, Teresa Gambaro and Warren Entsch, with two Labor MPs, Terri Butler and Laurie Ferguson, are drafting a cross-party private member’s bill in a bid to legalise same-sex marriage in the next sitting of parliament.
Prime Minister, Tony Abbott is pouring cold water on the idea, saying he doesn’t support the bill and that the government has greater priorities to pursue regarding the economy and national security.
This new effort to legalise gay marriage in Australia comes hard on the heels of the US Supreme Court decision a few weeks ago ruling that the American constitution guarantees the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry in all 50 states in the USA. This overturns laws in the remaining 14 states that prohibited same-sex marriage.
Frank Brennan published an incisive article last week in Eureka Street outlining his reservations about the US Supreme Court decision.
Catholic bishops in the US and Australia are in a quandary on the issue. Same-sex marriage is clearly against traditional Catholic Church teachings on homosexuality and marriage, and bishops have spoken out strongly against it.
The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference recently published a Pastoral Letter on the topic with the simple and pointed title, Don’t Mess With Marriage.
But many grass-roots Catholics in both countries support same-sex marriage, and the Catholic Catechism teaches in article 2358 that homosexuals ‘must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided.’
The journalist featured in this interview recorded via Skype for Eureka Street TV has covered this issue extensively in the United States. Here he talks about American Church reaction to the Supreme Court ruling.
Michael O’Loughlin is national reporter for Crux, The Boston Globe’s publication covering Catholic life and the Church in America. Brought up in a Catholic family in Massachusetts, he now lives and works in Chicago, and reports occasionally from Rome.
O’Loughlin is a graduate of Saint Anselm College, a liberal arts college founded by the Benedictines in New Hampshire, where he began his writing career working for the student newspaper. After graduating from Saint Anselm’s he went on to further theological study at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut.
Before joining the staff of Crux, he had a six month stint as an intern at the Jesuit publication America, followed by five years in Washington DC as a freelance writer with articles appearing in a number of