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Same-sex marriage for Germany

OXFORD (CNS): The German Bishops’ Conference expressed regret over a June 30 vote by the Bundestag (parlialment) to allow same-sex marriage while Archbishop Heiner Koch, from Berlin, described the vote as abandoning “the differentiated perception of various forms of partnership in order to stress the value of same-sex partnerships.”
 
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Asia’s first brush with same-sex marriage

TAIPEI (UCAN): Same sex marriage hit Asia for the first time when the Constitutional Court of Taiwan ruled on May 24 that the current law banning it contradicted Articles 7 and 22 of the constitution of the Republic of China that guarantee people’s freedom.
 
It ordered the legislature to make appropriate changes to the law within two years.
 
Father Otfried Chan, the secretary general of the bishops’ conference, said he is worried that the ruling will split society.
 
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Taiwan opposition to same-sex marriage

TAIPEI (UCAN): The Chinese Regional Bishops’ Conference in Taiwan issued a statement expressing the opposition of the Church to a bill that would allow same-sex marriage and asked the people of the island state to pray and fast for the cause.
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Same-sex marriage sticky topic for Catholic politicians

TAIPEI (UCAN): Being a high-profile Catholic and favoured candidate for vice president in the upcoming January 16 elections in Taiwan, Philip Chen Chien-jen has become something of an intrigue in public life in the island nation.

Mainstream media in Taiwan have focussed attention on Chen, a former public health official and academic, since it was announced on November 16 he would run alongside presidential candidate, Tsai Ing-wen, as her second-in-command.
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Cardinal cautions on same-sex marriage

HONG KONG (SE): A notice to the diocese released by the bishop of Hong Kong, John Cardinal Tong Hon, encouraging people in the diocese to study the platform of various political parties and candidates standing in the upcoming November 22 District Council Ordinary Elections, was sent to parishes and Church pastoral workers on November 5.
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The Church in the same-sex marriage debate

HONG KONG (SE): With the passing of same-sex marriage legislation in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom (UK) and what has been already passed in the state senate of Illinois in the United States of America (US), Catholics have been asking what implications this has for the Church, which has persistently opposed the law.


The Church did not invent marriage, nor did it define it as a union between a man and a woman, the tradition precedes the foundation of the Church, which has always considered marriage as something coming from nature.
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