Rev. Thomas Tobin, Bishop of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Providence, has said gay marriage “enshrines
into civil law immoral activity.”
The Rhode Island General Assembly last
year approved a law recognizing gay and lesbian couples with civil
unions as a compromise to a gay marriage bill which appeared to be
headed to defeat in the Senate. Supporters have said they are
planning to reintroduce the legislation this session.
Tobin, who earlier barred
gay Catholics from entering a civil union, criticized the effort
in an op-ed titled Five Problems with Homosexual “Marriage”
published Wednesday in the Rhode
Island Catholic.
Gay marriage, Tobin wrote, “isn't
about procuring civil rights for beleaguered homosexual persons. …
Same-sex marriage legislation is about distorting a venerable
institution – not about civil rights.”
“The natural law, the Holy Scriptures
and long-standing religious tradition are very consistent in stating
that homosexual activity is immoral, an offense to God, a serious
sin. The promotion of homosexual marriage is an attempt to
rationalize such behavior and to give it the affirmation, the
'blessing' of the state.”
Tobin also called such unions “an
ill-advised social experiment” with “unpredicted outcomes” and
warned that they would “pose yet another threat to religious
liberty.”
The Rev. Gene Dyszlewkski, chair of the
Rhode Island Religious Coalition in Support of Marriage Equality,
called Tobin's column “divisive and uninformed.”
“These continued attacks on our gay
and lesbian brothers and sisters only further perpetuate the notion
that some religious leaders are out of touch with members of their
faith,” he said in a statement.