Guam archbishop blasts domestic partnership bill
July 22, 2009
The archbishop of the sole diocese in Guam is leading the battle against an attempt to legalize domestic partnerships.
“We remain unequivocally opposed to Bill 138 and any legislation that threatens the sanctity of marriage and the family,” said Archbishop Anthony Sablan Apuron of Agaña. “The Catholic Church fundamentally teaches that homosexual acts are wrong. All are called to holiness and must seek that holiness by being open to God’s designs and plans for the individual and for the human race. This call to holiness demands that the individual and couples (one man and one woman) live a chaste life, a life of purity, obeying God’s commandments, in order to witness to the holiness of God.”
The Capuchin Franciscan archbishop also criticized the bill for granting non-married heterosexual couples a special legal status. “Inclusive of relationships between one man and one woman, this bill encourages the establishment of domestic partnerships in lieu of marital commitment by rewarding the former with the civil rights and advantages of the latter without the necessity of the former to embrace the duties and obligations of the latter.”
85% of the Guam’s residents are Catholic.
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Further information:
- Arguments heat up over domestic partnership legislation (KUAM-TV)
- Archbishop Remains Opposed, Despite Revisions to Same Sex Civil Union Bill (Pacific News Center)
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