Bishop Thomas Tobin, the leader of
Rhode Island's Roman Catholic Diocese, has called a proposed gay
marriage law “immoral and unnecessary.”
In a statement released Monday, Tobin
called on lawmakers to drop the proposed measure.
Tobin said the Catholic Church rejects
the “homosexual lifestyle,” which he described as a threat to
religious freedom, and called for the issue to be settled at the
ballot box.
“On a question of this magnitude,
then, the people of this state should decide as they have in many
other states,” he
wrote. “Let us vote!”
“Some have argued that the 'civil
rights' of the minority should not be determined by the vote of the
majority. I challenge that premise though. What is the source of
this so-called 'civil right?' Where is the moral or legal 'right' to
marry a person of the same gender found? It certainly has not been
part of the human experience, of human history. It is simply the
personal happiness or fulfillment of individuals, the 'right to do
whatever I want to do?' If that's the argument, it opens up all
sorts of other social experiments for us, doesn't it?”
Tobin added that gay folks are “our
brothers and sisters”
“It is our very concern for their
spiritual welfare, however, that motivates our rejection of the
homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage,” he said.
(Related: Lincoln
Chafee eager for Rhode Island to legalize gay marriage.)