Backlash in Mexico City

It still amazes me -- and I say this as a former Roman Catholic -- how two people loving each other is turned into evil by the Catholic Church in the light of sex abuse scandals here in the United States and, more recently publicized, in Ireland.  In his last sermon of the year, Mexico City's Cardinal Norbeto Rivera (left) chose not to wish his parishioners glad tidings and best wishes for the new year.  Instead, he lectured on the evils of same-sex marriage, calling the unions "perverse."  Said Rivera, “This perverse example cannot spread. It is necessary to constitutionally defend the family.”  He further called the law for marriage equality  "unjust, inadmissible and condemnable.”

Okay.  I understand it when anti-gay marriage activists use words like "condemnable," even though I disagree completely, but unjust?  Just who is being treated unjustly here?

Of course, Rivera's words are merely talking points for so many Roman Catholic leaders both here in the United States and abroad.  When are these religious folks finally going to realize that civil marriage should have nothing to do with religion?  Catholic churches have every right to refuse to marry gay couples.  What they don't have the right to do is dictate civil law and forbid me and my partner from obtaining a civil marriage for the government and then sanctifying it in the church of our choice -- one that recognizes us and accepts us.