religiondispatches | Before the dust had settled from the Catholic bishops’ synod on the
family, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith announced that it
will be hosting an interfaith colloquium this month on the “Complementarity of Man and Woman in Marriage.”
Organizers tout the interfaith aspect of the conference, which they say
will feature representatives from 14 religious traditions and 23
countries. Americans attending will include Rick Warren, evangelical
author and pastor; Russell Moore, head of the Ethics and Religious
Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; Henry Eyring,
First Counselor in the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints; and Charles Chaput, the ultraconservative Archbishop
of Philadelphia. Also participating will be Nicholas Okoh, the Anglican
Archbishop of Nigeria, who has called homosexuality a manifestation of the devil and praised Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan’s “courage” in signing a harsh anti-gay law last December.
Meanwhile, Catholic bishops have publicly slammed Catholic Universities that have decided to offer benefits to same-sex spouses of employees.
The Advocate reports that Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha criticized
Jesuit-run Creighton University and Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Diocese
of Fort Wayne-South Bend criticized Notre Dame. Rhoades said that
“Living in conformity with our Catholic teaching that marriage by its
nature is between one man and one woman needs religious liberty
protection so we are not forced to treat same-sex unions as equivalent
to marriage.”
