Article Added On: January 19, 2005 - over 7 years ago
Title: Block gay marriage, Catholics urge Martin
Author: Michael Valpy
Publication: The Globe and Mail
Publication Date: January 01, 2005 - over 7 years ago
Faith Groups: Roman Catholic
Themes: same sex marriage/blessing

Abstract: Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Toronto, sailed full-steam yesterday into Canada's marriage debate, making public a letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin urging him to maintain marriage as a heterosexual rite and use the Constitution's notwithstanding clause to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

January 19, 2005

Cardinal Aloysius Ambrozic, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Toronto, sailed full-steam yesterday into Canada's marriage debate, making public a letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin urging him to maintain marriage as a heterosexual rite and use the Constitution's notwithstanding clause to override the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The cardinal warned the Prime Minister that, if Parliament were to proceed now to pass legislation permitting same-sex marriage, Canada would be tipped into an uncharted sea fraught with risks to some of the country's most significant social institutions, such as public education.

"Can we say with certainty what the social outcome of a redefinition of marriage would be?" Cardinal Ambrozic asked. "In all humility, none of us can do so."

The 75-year-old prelate said the five-year life span of the constitutional override clause