The Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield plans a special prayer service the day same-sex marriage is to be signed into law. As IPR'S Brian Mackey reports, he says it's "scandalous" that so many Catholic politicians supported the legislation.
Gov. Pat Quinn is planning a big public ceremony to sign the same-sex marriage bill next Wednesday in Chicago. An hour or so later, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki will hold a sort of counter service at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield.
In a statement, the bishop says politicians who supported same-sex marriage are “morally complicit as co-operators in facilitating this grave sin.” But during the House debate last week, an even higher Catholic authority was cited. House Speaker Michael Madigan, quoting Pope Francis:
"If someone is gay, and he searches for the lord, and he has goodwill, who am I to judge?"
As if to refute that widely-cited remark, Paprocki deployed his own quotation from the pope, when he was in his previous job as a cardinal in Argentina, calling same-sex marriage legislation there "destructive of the plan of God."
Madigan and Quinn are Catholics. The bishop says all politicians have a "moral obligation" to work for repeal of same-sex marriage.