Louisa Wall, above, the MP who authored New Zealand’s same-sex marriage bill, has slammed the Catholic Church for poking its nose into Australia’s postal survey on gay marriage.
Wall is reported here as saying that, given its record of child sexual abuse, the Church has no moral authority to interfere with the same-sex marriage ballot currently being held in Australia.
She said that she was perplexed by the prominent role of the Catholic Church and its leaders in the marriage survey.
I can’t understand why they haven’t been told to not lead the ‘no’ campaign. They don’t have any moral authority. How can you, when your institution over 70 years actively covered up all the sexual abuse of children?
The process they’re leading is affecting all the LGBT young people. It’s just disgusting.
Earlier this week, Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, above, said love between two people of the same sex was:
In making his argument against same-sex marriage, Coleridge pointed out that siblings cannot marry siblings and parents cannot marry their children.
Three Catholic archdioceses — Sydney, Hobart, and Broken Bay — are listed as official partners with the Coalition for Marriage, which is spearheading the “vote no” campaign,
Last month, Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart wrote an open letter to Catholics urging a “no” vote and asking them to consider the consequences of legalising same-sex marriage. A similar directive was issued by the Archbishop of Perth, Timothy Costelloe.
Wall was surprised more Australians hadn’t told the Catholic Church to butt out of the same-sex marriage debate.
I wish you’d talk about it and say to them, ‘If you want to be a moral crusader, why don’t you eliminate child sexual abuse? And be a leader in that?’ Not against human rights, and especially in a process where young Australians are being so adversely affected.
I find it absolutely appalling that they’ve come out and been so vigorous in their opposition.
She also said the “scaremongering” from Catholic archbishops and former Prime Ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott was:
So yesterday. This legislation is about the future, it’s not about the past.
Speaking of Abbot, a giant mural recently popped up in a Sydney suburb showing Abbott marrying himself. Artist Scottie Marsh created the mural to lampoon Abbott and to support the same-sex marriage postal survey.
Wall, formerly an elite sportsperson who represented New Zealand in rugby and netball before entering politics, said her bill had come in the midst of a global conversation about same-sex marriage.
It’s a bit like sport – timing is everything. We basically joined a global conversation, then had a very local conversation about the role of the state in marriage.
She said New Zealand’s debate on same-sex marriage was on the whole “incredibly collegial” but it did, at times get nasty.
She got hate mail saying she would go to hell, and that she had caused earthquakes and a whole lot of droughts.
It’s quite interesting they think that as a lesbian woman I had so much power!
Wall’s same-sex marriage bill was passed into law by the New Zealand parliament in 2013, making it the first country in the Asia Pacific to grant same-sex couples the right to marry.