They got 'em there, too, eh?

Canada, just days away from joining Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain in giving legal recognition to same-sex marriages, is facing a last-ditch attempt by the Catholic Church to maintain discrimination. The LA Times for Saturday tells us that Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the archbishop of Quebec and primate of the Canadian Catholic Church, is threatening that the Church will refuse to baptize the children of same-sex parents.

Already, two Roman Catholic MPs have already been reprimanded for supporting the legislation: One was denied communion and the other was stripped of his duties with his congregation ""until [he] has a change of mind." (The latter did not come without opposition: When it was announced, about 30 members of the congregation walked out of Mass.) Even Prime Minister Paul Martin has been threatened with loss of communion.

Ouellet declared that the Catholic clergy felt "threatened" by the same-sex legislation.

"Even our priests sometimes do not feel free to preach on homosexual and sexual morality because they are accused of homophobia," he said in his testimony [before a Parliament committee] ... on Wednesday.

"Once the state imposes a new standard affirming that homosexual behavior is a social good, those who oppose it for religious motives or motives of conscience will be considered as bigots, anti-gay and homophobes...."

Good. Because they are.

Footnote: Ouellet reprised the old inanity about same-sex marriages being wrong because they don't produce children. First, I wonder at the logic: Are we supposed to think that if gays and lesbians can't get married they will have children? If not that, then what the hell is this supposed to mean?

And then, of course, there is always the too-delicious-for-words irony of a Roman Catholic Cardinal griping about other people not producing offspring.