by Laura Heffner
Frank Ferri, Rhode Island state representative, led the fight to legalize gay marrriage in one of the nation's most Catholic states and won. Recently, Rhode Island became the sixth state to legalize gay marriage. Ferri is an openly gay and Catholic man who is active in his church's choir and has struggled with the Catholic stand on homosexuality. He says that one day he received a message from God telling it that it would be okay, he should be who he is.
Recent polls show that many people believe that the Catholic church's views are outdated and many believe that the desire to cling to traditional beliefs is causing the church to lose its influence especially in the arena of gay marriage. A poll in February showed that 78% of Catholics would follow their own conscience rather than the teachings of the church in certain tough moral issues showing again where the church is losing it's hold on its parishioners.
While Pope Francis was a bishop in Argentina, he took a stand for civil unions for gay couples though he has not taken this stand as Pope as of yet. The Church has used almost guerrilla tactics to sway the vote of it's Catholic law makers including refusing to allow them to participate in communion if they were to vote against the Church laws. Slowly; however, the threats and use of their considerable wealth appears to be losing hold in many Catholic's lives especially on the subject of same-sex marriage.
This is strictly my opinion but I always wonder about God's love in situations such as this. Love thy neighbor as thyself....
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