France’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, the Archbishop of Lyon and Primate of the Gauls, has some stupid observations on the looming prospect of marriage equality for France. In support of his “argument”, he betrays some seriously sloppy thinking, in common with so many of his fellow bishops - to which I will return in a longer reflection. But in the midst of his nonsense, there is this:

“A referendum must be held to allow a real debate and to make sure the government is not in the grip of the lobbies,” he said. “A majority of the population agrees with the traditional view of marriage.”

- Daily Telegraph

Leaving a decision on equality and protection from discrimination is in principle unpalatable - but in practice could be valuable: polls show that the proposal has heavy public support. (This is not incompatible with the cardinal’s claim that a majority agree with the traditional view of marriage: most people also believe that divorce should be lifelong, but recognize the value of legal provision for divorce, and of remarriage after divorce. It is entirely feasible for some people to hold that ideally, marriage “should be” between a man and a woman - but that there is a need for legal recognition for same- sex marriage).

The real nugget though, is his suggestion that the decision should be not in the grip of “the lobbies”: but I don’t suppose he is including in that suggestion one of the most prominent lobbies against, the institutional Catholic Church, in France, Scotland, Minnesota, Washington, Australia New Zealand and elsewhere.

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• Cardinal Martini’s Last Words: It’s About Love, Not Law (enlightenedcatholicism-colkoch.blogspot.com)
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