Australian Bishops Face Lawsuit for Distributing Traditional Marriage Booklet

Carrie Dedrick | Updated: Nov 20, 2015

Australian Bishops Face Lawsuit for Distributing Traditional Marriage Booklet

Australian bishops are under fire from the members of the country’s gay marriage political movement after they distributed a booklet that supported traditional marriage. 

Charisma News reports the booklet, titled “Don’t Mess with Marriage” was distributed nationwide. Additionally, the archbishop of Hobart, Julian Porteous sent the booklet home to parents of Catholic school children in Tasmania. 

The Daily Signal writer Lyle Shelton said the booklet maintained a respectful tone toward individuals with same-sex attraction. 

This is what “Don’t Mess with Marriage” said about traditional marriages: “Their physical, spiritual, psychological and sexual differences show they are meant for each other, their union makes them whole, and through their union ‘in one flesh,’ they together beget children who are ‘flesh of their flesh.’”

The distribution of “Don’t Mess with Marriage” outraged Rodney Croome, the leader of Australia’s gay marriage political movement. Croome claimed that the bishops had turned the children into “couriers of prejudice” by giving them copies of the booklet.  

Left wing Australian Greens party politician Martine Delany has filed a complaint in response to the incident. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference have 21 days to respond to the complaint which will likely go to the Tasmanian Supreme Court. 

Publication date: November 20, 2015



Australian Bishops Face Lawsuit for Distributing Traditional Marriage Booklet