SBS broadcast company reported today that Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney had asked married Catholics to resist being bullied into redefining marriage.
The Archbishop said Catholics shoud respect and love married couples withut accepting gay marriage in a packed congregation at St Marys Cathedral in Sydney.
Earlier in his Facebook site Archibishop commented in giving his blessing to blessing wedding anniversaries celebrants, ” In todayâ’ss society, the vocation of marriage is becoming increasingly countercultural. Divorce rates are increasing while marriage rates are decreasing, with many of our young people choosing to avoid committing to one other for life.
He said “But there are still so many in our community who stand as strong witnesses to the good of the permanence of marriage. Last weekend, I was honoured to welcome to St Mary’s Cathedral in a special way couples celebrating significant anniversaries of 50, 55 or 60 years this year. Amongst those I greeted, there was more than 1000 years of married life. God bless them, and may many more couples achieve these milestones
More than 120 couples joined the mass on Sunday morning to renew their wedding vows and celebrate more than 1700 years of marriage between them .reported SBS.
“Marriage brings together…man and woman, sex and love, love and babies, parents and children,” the archbishop said in his homily.
“To say this is not to criticise anyone.”
Archbishop Fisher said the faithful were often labelled as bigoted, with political and cultural forces trying to “bully us all” into redefining marriage.
“To say marriage is special is not to demean these other realities, rather it respects the diverse ways of being human and loving, not pretending away the differences,” he said before couples renewed their vows.
Joan and Keith Dunsmore, who will celebrate their 65th anniversary, were among those who stood and promised to love and honour each other for the rest of their lives.
“It’s a lovely feeling to renew our vows in this atmosphere,” Mrs Dunsmore said after the mass.
She advised other couples to “talk it out” and work through problems together.