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From: Pastor Kathy Redig
The message coming out of most Catholic churches these days is that parishioners should vote to support the marriage amendment and basically make it even more difficult than it already is for same-sex couples to eventually marry within our state, receiving the benefits afforded to all legally married couples.
I want to go on record as a validly ordained Roman Catholic woman priest and pastor of All Are One Roman Catholic church here in Winona saying that this request coming from the bishop and my brother priests is wrong. Those who would advocate for such a mean-spirited law have not truly listened to the words of our brother Jesus whom they say they follow.
Jesus spoke of love first. He asked us to listen to one another, to seek after justice, mercy and goodness toward each other. Each person is a spiritual being, gifted by our loving God to have a human experience. When two people, gay or straight, are committed to each other, they are following God’s command to love who, incidentally, created them the way they are, which is a good thing.
Gay and lesbian people live in this world as our brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, friends, and deserve to be treated as God asks we treat all people. The fact that two people of the same sex love and want to live in love with each other does not affect my marriage to my husband–it only strengthens it as I watch two committed people trying to do their best to love and care for one another. When two people of the same sex choose to become parents, that gives parents to children who would otherwise be without them; this is a good thing.
In all of this, God’s command to love is being fulfilled. The marriage amendment simply looks at what love truly means in too-narrow a view. Please vote “NO” on November 6.
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