Dear Archbishop,After censoring several comments opposing your public advocacy for the passage of the amendment limiting marriage on November 6, 2012, I have been banned from posting to your public forum on TheCatholicSpirit.com for my response to the story entitled “Marching for Mary and Marriage.”
It is inconceivable to me that you would dedicate a Rosary procession petitioning the Blessed Mother for such a destructive purpose. The Holy Mother must be appalled.
My comments were as follows:
• Why do you feel the need to censor my comments? Unlike you, I am trying to reach out and start a dialogue. This is an issue that affects millions of gay children. Gay children who are killing themselves because people like you are taking away their hope for fulfilling their dreams of happiness. You make no mention of the gay families who are directly involved, no reference to how and why they exist with a complete disregard to their individual rights and no reference to the overwhelming amount of biological, psychological and scientific evidence that runs counter to your baseless contention that gay marriage is harmful to society and children.
• Do you really know what is harmful to children? Tell them that they are not members of a legitimate family. That harms them. Do you know what else? Tell them their parents are setting a poor example, not just for them, but for all of society. Do you know what else harms children? How about telling them that they are better off being raised by someone other than the only two people they have ever trusted in their short lives? Oh yeah, and don’t forget to make sure you tell all of their friends, too.
• Do you have any idea what homosexuality is, beyond what you may have heard from the pulpit of your church? Do you even know what gay men and women want from marriage beyond your contempt and or disgust for a group of people who are different from you? Do you know that the homosexual orientation reveals itself at puberty in as many as one in ten children? Do you realize that any of children conceived in the heterosexual union have those very same odds? Are you familiar with any of the numerous biological and scientific studies that identify homosexuality as a naturally occurring, immutable human characteristic and link it to the beginnings of human development in the mother’s womb? Have you ever asked a gay man or woman how they felt about their partner? Do you realize that long-term homosexual relationships have little to do with the physical relationship and just like heterosexual relationships, are everything about the deeply held emotional and psychological bonds that occur between loving couples? These are biological facts supported by countless scientific studies.
• Do you have any idea about the devastating physical and psychological harm your lack of understanding and willingness to ignore the facts about gay marriage has on millions of gay men and women, their parents, children, family and loved ones? If you have any idea, and have even an ounce of compassion, you would rethink your position and let this post stand.
Let me finish with this:
Do you know what absolutely will not harm your children? Telling them that the world is a diverse and wonderful place where everyone should care deeply about their friends and neighbors. Telling them everyone deserves to be loved and respected and that all of us have a right to live our lives in peace, free from fear, and free from the tyranny of a few uneducated and ignorant people who think they know what’s best for everyone. Do you know what else will never harm them? Giving them a solid education in science and biology. Letting them understand the things that are true in the world. Letting them learn the difference between that and what we know is no longer true. Teaching them not to fear knowledge. If you want to teach them to pray the Rosary, teach them to pray for peace and understanding.
– John Buckley
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