Archbishop warns of dire consequences of homosexual ‘marriage’

by John-Henry Westen

Abp. Terrence Prendergast has seen the American church's future.

MINNEAPOLIS, October 12, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – “You are summoned to a tribunal where you cannot have a defense lawyer and you cannot record the proceedings nor have a witness present. The people judging and prosecuting you have no legal qualifications. The accusation is ambiguous, having to do with ideas the state does not like. The penalties could include fines equal to several thousands of dollars, public recanting, and rehabilitation classes. You are a bishop. This is not China. This is Canada. The offense: explaining why homosexual relations are a sin.”

So began the address of Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast to St. Thomas University Law School Monday, October 8, where he laid out the alarming consequences of same-sex “marriage” from the Canadian experience.

The archbishop was describing the true experiences of Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, who in 2005 was hit with a human rights complaint for proclaiming the Church’s teachings on homosexuality. The complaint was subsequently dropped by the plaintiff, who admitted that he only filed the complaint to get media attention.

Others, however, have not been so lucky. Alberta pastor Stephen Boissoin, for instance, was dragged through a several year process in a human rights commission, at the end of which he was found “guilty.” His crime? Writing a letter to the editor of a local newspaper expressing his concern about the gay agenda in schools. Boissoin was hit with a fine and ordered never again to publicly speak about his views on homosexuality.

Archbishop Prendergast also expressed his concern for those who, thanks to the legalization of gay “marriage,” “are deceived into destructive lifestyles, approved of and funded by Canadian governments.”

“The Bible is being called hate literature,” he said. “Clearly, the Church is in the crosshairs. There will be growing pressure for the Church to comply or to be shut down.”

Enumerating the “consequences of same-sex marriages and related sexual license are already manifesting themselves,” the Archbishop noted:

- restrictions on freedoms;
- forced sex education;
- sexually confused children;
- sexual experimentation among children;
- muzzling and debilitating the Church;
- more births out of wedlock;
- more in vitro fertilizations;
- more abortions;
- more poverty;
- more misery;
- more disease;
- more addictions; and
- higher health care costs.

“By reassigning financial benefits to same-sex marriage, what was once an incentive to fruitful, traditional families has become an incentive to sterile, destructive social arrangements,” he said.

Archbishop Prendergast ended his address on a positive note. “Every challenge to the Church’s teaching is an opportunity to clarify it,” he said. “Media attention is putting the Church on the front page, and we must see that as a good thing.”

“Just the same,” he warned, “the playbook of our opponents is unrelenting attempts to change or destroy the Church.”

The state of Minnesota is set to vote on a referendum to protect traditional marriage on November 6.