Thomas John Paprocki, the Roman
Catholic bishop of Springfield, Illinois on Monday dropped the facade
that the church's opposition is based on religious freedoms.
In an interview with Catholic radio,
Paprocki admitted that the church's opposition is not rooted in how
civil marriage affects it and its members.
“I don't want to give the impression
that if we get enough exemptions into the law or enough protections
into the law that would protect religious freedom that we would be
okay with same-sex marriage,” Paprocki said. “That's not what
we're saying here.”
“What I'm saying is, I don't believe
that there is any provision that they could make that is going to
allow for same-sex marriage to become the law without having some
implication or some adverse fallout.”
“So just to be clear about that.
We're not saying, 'Well, give us enough protection here for our
religious liberties and we'll be okay with same-sex marriage' –
we're not saying that at all.”
“The whole idea is really
fundamentally flawed and is just unacceptable,” he added.
Paprocki added that the state could
legalize marriage for gay couples but it would “have no moral
meaning.”
(Listen to the audio at GoodAsYou.org.)
(Related: Illinois
bishop says gay marriage would 'harshly' discriminate against
Christians.)