W E S T E R N A U S T R A L I A’ S A WA R D - W I N N I N G C AT H O L I C N E W S P A P E R S I N C E 1 8 7 4
THE RECORD
We d n e s d a y, 1 5 D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 0
THE
P A R I S H . T H E N AT I O N . T H E W O R L D .
$2.00
THERECORD.COM.AU
I WANT
YOU
Archbishop Barry Hickey, pictured, will join Australia’s prelates in calling on all Catholics to contact their Federal MPs urging them to protect marriage.
PHOTO COURTESY OF FLAME MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL
‘Tell your MPs the Truth about marriage’ BY ANTHONY BARICH AUSTRALIA’S Catholic Bishops are planning to take up petitions for Federal parliamentarians in support of marriage in every parish around the country. The petitions will be a direct response to a resolution in Federal Parliament asking all MPs “to gauge their constituents’ views on ways to achieve equal treatment for same sex couples including marriage”. The motion to ask MPs to do this was sponsored by Greens member for Melbourne Adam Brandt. Though the current Bill before the Senate was comprehensively defeated 44-5 in February, the Bishops are urging people to contact their Federal Members of Parliament at their local electorate office by Monday, 20 December. Parliament returns on 8 February. Archbishop Barry Hickey, who helped to frame the wording of the petition in reply, said that petition forms would be sent to all parishes in the Perth Archdiocese at the end of January. The forms will read: “As a parishioner of (parish name and location) within your electorate, please consider my position on the meaning
of marriage. Given the variety of domestic arrangements available in Australia, I request that you protect the unique institution of marriage as traditionally understood and actually lived as the complementary love between a man and a woman.” The completed petitions would be forwarded by the parishes to their local Federal Member of the House of Representatives. “This will be an opportunity for all Catholics to make a personal contribution to the fight to preserve the unique nature of marriage,” Archbishop Hickey told The Record. “Taking up the petitions in late January will ensure as far as possible that people are at home in their own parishes and their signatures can therefore be sent directly to their MP.” Archbishops Philip Wilson of Adelaide, Mark Coleridge of Canberra-Goulburn, Adrian Doyle of Hobart and John Bathersby of Brisbane are also encouraging their priests to promote the petition in their Archdioceses, along with Darwin Bishop Eugene Hurley. Archbishop Wilson, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference president, told The
Record that the petition, approved at its 22-26 November Plenary Meeting in North Sydney, was also in response to the initiative taken by parliamentarians who “asked for our views in this debate”. “We have used language which clearly enunciates where we are coming from. “The wording is very important, and we want the petitions to be activated in every parish, so that parishioners will be able to take up what was recommended by parliamentarians, to contribute to discussion about this,” he said. Sydney’s Archdiocesan Life, Marriage and Family Centre cosigned a letter with the Catholic Women’s League and the Knights of the Southern Cross urging priests to help mobilise the Catholic community to oppose any moves by the Greens to change the Marriage Act. The letter was sent with eight suggested discussion points for meeting with MPs and a document called Marriage: myths and realities, which equips Catholics how to respond “in truth and love” to the most common arguments raised in favour of same-sex marriage. The letter recommended parishes ask one or two trusted parishion-
ers to take responsibility for organising the signing of the petitions at Sunday Masses and dispatching them to MPs afterwards. The Knights of the Southern Cross and the Catholic Women’s League have asked their members to be ready to assist with the petitions in their local parishes. It also strongly encouraged parishioners to make an appointment to speak with their Federal MP about the issue in the remaining weeks prior to Christmas. “You may also wish to consider visiting your Member as part of a parish delegation,” the letter told priests. The Australian Family Association is also urging people to target Labor MPs – in WA, Member for Perth Stephen Smith and Member for Rockingham Gary Gray and Member for Fremantle Melissa Parke – as “they are the ones under particular pressure by the Greens”, the AFA told The Record. WA Liberal Senator Mal Washer also supports same-sex marriage. There are 10 other Liberals and one Nationals MP in the Senate from WA. Same-sex marriage threatens to split the ALP. The South Australia branch only passed a motion sup-
porting it 90-88 on 27 November, the powerful shop assistants’ union (SDA) strongly opposes it, as do some ALP power brokers who deposed Kevin Rudd to put Julia Gillard in power. While Gillard has maintained that ALP policy decided at the Party’s last national conference in August was to oppose any change to the Marriage Act, she has agreed to bring the next conference forward to the end of 2011. This will enable another vote on the floor well before she has to fight another election, setting the scene for parliament to possibly debate legislative reform in 2012. Mr Gray told The Record: “I support the definition of marriage in the Marriage Act - that marriage is between a man and a woman. I also believe that there should be a means by which same-sex couples can have their relationships recognised if they so choose. “The Government supports a nationally consistent framework for relationship recognition as has been introduced in Victoria, ACT, NSW and Tasmania.” Points to discuss with MPs; Myths and realities of marriage, Pages 10-11