LGBT activist drops complaint against Australian bishops over marriage booklet

May 11, 2016 by Jill

by Steve Weatherbe, LifeSite:

A Tasmanian LGBT activist and Green Party candidate has withdrawn his discrimination complaint against the Australian Catholic Church over a booklet on marriage he claimed had caused “pain and harm” to people.

At issue was the pastoral letter, Messing with Marriage, issued in booklet form and reportedly distributed to Catholic school children. It explained Catholic opposition to same-sex “marriage” and defended heterosexual marriage as “holy,” God-given and linked inextricably with procreation and child-rearing. It is still being distributed in anticipation of a promised plebiscite on the issue later in the year.

The Tasmanian anti-discrimination commission, which had the option of pursuing the matter even when the complainant withdraws, has announced it is dropping the matter too.

The Institute of Public Affairs’ Simon Breheny hailed the decision as a “victory for freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The laws that allowed for this complaint to be made should be repealed.”

But the Archbishop of Hobart Julian Porteous expressed disappointment that the process ended before the Catholic Church’s freedom of religion and speech could be vindicated. His statement read in part, “This decision by the Commissioner raises a number of issues which remained unanswered, in particular the ability of the Church to freely express its view on marriage.”

The complainant, Martine Delaney, a male-to-female transgender person, told LifeSiteNews, “I don’t want to take away anybody’s freedom of speech.” But during two conciliation sessions he did propose changes to the booklet, mostly to reframe its many expressions of Catholic doctrine on marriage and sexuality as belief rather than fact.

Where the booklet states, “Every man, woman and child has great dignity and worth which can never be taken away. This includes those who experience same-sex attraction,” Delaney proposed preceeding that statement with the words “We hold.”

He also wanted an amendment where the booklet states, “If the civil law ceases to define marriage as traditionally understood, it will be a serious injustice and undermine that common good for which the civil law exists.” Delaney proposed to insert the words “the Church believes.”

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