Cardinal Francis George, the leader of
the Roman Catholic Church in Chicago, warned this week that gay
marriage proponents are on the “wrong side of nature,” a jab at
the those who say opponents are on the “wrong side of history.”
In an op-ed titled American
Freedom and the Catholic Church, George warned that marriage
equality is forcing the Catholic Church to “not act as Catholic.”
“We are afraid that the institutions
that perform the works of mercy that have been integral to the
church's mission for centuries will be forced to become, effectively,
government institutions, given permission to exist only if they do
not act as Catholic. At stake are Catholic hospitals, Catholic
universities and Catholic social services, precisely as Catholic,”
he wrote.
George claimed that “the imposition
of a definition of marriage that destroys the natural meaning of
marital union” is a test case for religious liberty.
“The law now holds that men and women
are interchangeable in marriage, as if children did not need both a
mother and a father to be born and raised with some security. These
are laws that mark societies in decline, demographically as well as
morally.”
Americans should be “concerned that
we are on the wrong side of what nature teaches us and therefore, at
least in the long run, headed for historical failure as a society,”
he added.
George strongly opposed passage of
Illinois' law allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.