Church leaders firm on stand against same-sex marriage

Malolos Bishop Jose Francisco Oliveros in a solemn mass at the Malolos Cathedral (Photo by Ramon Velasquez/Wikipedia)

MANILA – After a solon appealed to court for the legalization of same-sex marriage, Catholic church leaders reiterated their belief that marriage is sanctified for the union of a man and a woman alone.

“It’s against God’s will,” Marbel Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez said.

“If we want to remain godly, let us be faithful to what the Lord wills,” Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco also said.

“The sanctity of marriage is enshrined in our Constitution where marriage is understood as between a man and a woman. Only in such a marriage is the good of the child safeguard which is the backbone of the nation,” Malolos Bishop Jose Oliveros agreed.

In the past three years, Ireland, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Uruguay, France and Brazil have legalized gay and lesbian marriages in their countries.

To this, Oliveros asserted that the Philippines should not join the ‘bandwagon.’

“It does not mean we have to follow. That’s simply bandwagon mentality. We have our own values, tradition and Constitution to follow,” he said.

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) earlier released a statement condemning lawmakers who supported same-sex marriage.

“To the legislators who consider giving legal recognition to same sex unions, the Church declares there is no equivalence or even any remote analogy whatsoever between marriage between a man and woman as planned by God and the so-called same sex unions,” the CBCP said in a statement.