Pope defends traditional marriage in meeting with Canadian ambassador

Catholic New Times, Sept 26, 2004

OTTAWA (CCN) -- Pope John Paul II made the Catholic Church's opposition to same-sex marriage unmistakably clear in his first meeting with Canada's new ambassador to the Holy See.

"Any attempts to change the meaning of the word 'spouse' contradict right reason," the pope said after receiving the credentials of Ambassador Donald Smith at the Vatican on September 4. "Legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage."

For generations, he said "Canadians have recognized and celebrated the place of marriage at the heart of your society."

The pontiffs remarks came as the Supreme Court of Canada is preparing to hear arguments next month on the constitutionality of proposed federal legislation to legalize same-sex marriage while protecting religious groups who choose not to marry gays and lesbians. Many of the mainline churches in Canada, including the Catholic Church, have been granted intervenor status.

The government referred the issue to the high court after court rulings in three provinces struck down the traditional definition of marriage as the exclusive union between a man and a woman. Scores of gay and lesbian couples in Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia have since legally married.

The pope also told Smith, a career diplomat who was appointed as the Ambassador to the Vatican in May, that his pastoral visits to Canada, including World Youth Day 2002 in Toronto, "remain clearly etched in my mind."