With Florida basking in the glow of a historical day in which same-sex couples were granted the right to be married, two opposing views have emerged from the state's Roman Catholic leadership.
In one corner, we get the archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, sending out a letter threatening to fire any employee who shows public support for marriage equality. In the other, Bishop Robert N. Lynch of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg, writing an op-ed piece for the Tampa Bay Times calling for Catholics to have more compassion for same-sex couples looking for marriage equality.
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When news broke that same-sex couples are able to legally wed in Florida, the archdiocese came out strong, releasing a statement condemning the court's decision to lift Florida's ban on same-sex marriage.
The statement, released the day before the stay on same-sex marriage expired, reads as one would expect from a religion that has long opposed homosexuality.
"The conjugal nature of a marriage between a man and a woman has provided for millennia the basis for norms of marital exclusivity and permanence that made possible stable families necessary for human flourishing," part of the statement reads.
The statement goes on to say that "redefining civil 'marriage' to include two persons of the same sex will have far-reaching consequences in society." And that "a redefinition of marriage does nothing to safeguard a child's right to a mother and father and to be raised in a stable family where his or her development and well-being is served to the greatest extent possible."
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The following day, Archbishop Wenski sent out his letter warning his staff that they could lose their jobs if they decide to express any kind of support for same-sex marriage on social media outlets.
