Sunday, February 26, 2006

Catholic couple clashes with church over gay rights

Charlie and Maria Girsch aren't your typical parents. In their 20s, he was a Roman Catholic priest; she was a teacher and a nun. They fell in love and chose to marry.

Now, love looms tall again to test the St. Paul couple's strong ties to Catholicism. The church has toughened its stand against Catholics in same-sex relationships. And one of the couple's six children is gay.
"We are caught between the child we love and the church we grew up in," Charlie Girsch says.

At the Cathedral of St. Paul, people wearing rainbow-colored sashes — considered a political statement in support ofpeople in gay relationships— are refused communion. And the diocesan leader, Archbishop Harry Flynn, now supports a proposed amendment to the Minnesota constitution that would ban not only gay marriage but also many advantages that union brings.

As a sash-wearing parent, Charlie Girsch has been denied communion himself. He and his wife rallied with others last summer to createCatholic Rainbow Parents, a group that has grown to 30 or more moms and dads of adult gays who oppose the church's stand.
Still fighting the Church, it appears. Perhaps, they would be better served to contact Dr. Joe Nicolosi at the National Association of Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). This would be the path to take rather than that of rebelling against the Church which cannot change it s teachings.

More here.

Hat Tip to Darla M for the link.

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