By Paul Dobbyn
BRISBANE Archbishop Mark Coleridge has outlined the Church’s teachings on the nature of marriage in a radio interview.
He said society had always seen this relationship as central to its future.
Archbishop Coleridge said other forms of relationships could be “wondrous”, he said one of the difficulties with same-sex marriage was “it tends to collapse a couple of relationships into the category of marriage in a way that does little justice to marriage itself”.
“There are many different kinds of love and forms of human relationships; each has own value, which is certainly true of same-sex relationships, but that doesn’t mean to say that this is marriage,” he said.
Speaking with Steve Austin on ABC Radio on June 4, Archbishop Coleridge covered topics including the scandal of sexual abuse in the Church, the ability of a celibate clergy to comment on sexual relationships, and his opinions on the push by Catholic Coalition politicians, including Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull, to legalise same-sex marriage.
He said those opposing the push for the legalisation of same-sex marriage were often depicted as “troglodytes” or “bigots”.
He spoke about the Church’s definition of marriage.
“We say that marriage is the free, lifelong exclusive bond between a man and woman, open to children, so not just based on intensity of emotion or sexual attraction, however important they might be, but based on complementarity of man and woman and potential for fertility and therefore the future of society that implies,” he said.
He said this view had persisted across centuries and across cultures and that “there’s nothing particularly Catholic or even religious about what I’ve just said”.
Mr Austin queried the archbishop’s ability as a celibate to make a judgement on the sexual nature of human relationships.
Archbishop Coleridge replied “as a priest and bishop over the years I’ve had unusual and intimate contact with married people in all kinds of situations”.
“Out of that experience – listening, journeying, sharing with deep ways all challenges, joys and sorrows of their relationship, including sexual, can provide a quality of insight and wisdom not given to anyone else,” he said.
