Catholic bishop attends installation of Canada's openly gay Chaplain General
October 04, 2013
The bishop who heads Canada’s Catholic military ordinariate has defended his role at the installation of an openly homosexual Chaplain General for the Canadian armed forces, saying that it was “an expected thing” for him to attend the ceremony.
Bishop Donald Thériault said that his participation in the ceremony did not convey approval for the conduct of Brigadier General John Fletcher--whose male partner, to whom he is legal married, attended the installation. The bishop said that Fletcher was the clear choice for the Chaplain General’s role, since he was “the only one with the experience at all levels.”
“It was my responsibility to be there and give support to his office, and not to him or his lifestyle,” the bishop said. “I was there as a member of the Interfaith Committee.”
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Posted by: geoffreysmith1 -
Oct. 05, 2013 9:52 AM ET USA
It's an expected thing for this bishop to resign rather than give a perceived public approval to the appointment of an 'active' homosexual to such an influential post. Another non-vertebrate among the episcopacy, I'm sorry to say.
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Posted by: -
Oct. 04, 2013 7:45 PM ET USA
Think of the martyrs for marriage, St. John the Baptist and St. Thomas More. John was beheaded for openly preaching that Herod could not marry his brother's wife; Thomas dangerously angered King Henry for silently, but conspicuously, declining to attend the Coronation of Anne Boleyn as Queen. Our bishops these days are about the quality of those in Thomas More's day, I reckon, who lived longer than he did, but whose names have deservedly been forgotten. St. John, St Thomas More, pray for us.
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Posted by: [email protected] -
Oct. 04, 2013 7:12 PM ET USA
Wow! Another excuse of another bishop who has no backbone. It is getting really deep with explanation.
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Posted by: jg23753479 -
Oct. 04, 2013 4:15 PM ET USA
One wonders just what kind of moral turpitude on the part of Fletcher might have decided Bishop Thériault NOT to attend the ceremony. If the general had multiple sodomite lovers at the ceremony? Would that have pushed the bishop to reconsider attending? How about news that the general was heavily invested in abortion mills around Canada? How about both things combined? What exactly would it take to convince Thériault that "experience at all levels" doesn't, after all, trump other considerations?
