Ottawa, Canada - A Canadian cardinal who had been considered a possible successor to Pope John Paul says same-sex marriage is threatening religious freedom.
Marc Cardinal Ouellet said the threat even reaches into pulpits in Canada.
The Quebec City cardinal said priests no longer feel comfortable preaching the morality of their own church for fear of being branded homophobes.
"There's a climate taking shape where we don't dare say what we think anymore or we don't dare teach,'' he told a Senate committee Wednesday.
"Even in the pulpit we feel threatened in teaching the church's sexual morality. ... That's also part of religious freedom.''
But Ouellet also had a message for clergy who want to excommunicate or refuse communion to proponents of same-sex marriage, abortion or any other violation of church doctrine.
He was responding to questions about two cases where NDP MPs have been ostracized for their stand on same-sex marriage.
In one case, a parish priest in northern Ontario told NDP MP Charlie Angus earlier this year that he could no longer take the sacrament of communion.
"You do not lose your right to belong to a community because you do not vote in the right way,'' he said. "We are all sinners in one way or another so we have to be welcoming for all our members.
"We are a community of sinners,'' said Ouellet, who was one of 20 cardinals listed by the National Catholic Register newspaper this spring as possible candidates to succeed Pope John Paul.
But Ouellet had a different take on the case of Joe Comartin, another New Democrat MP who was told by his London, Ont., diocese he could no longer participate in some church activities.
Ouellet said he understands why the church would deny a leadership role to someone who opposes Catholic theology.
Comartin has been an altar server, administered the eucharist, taken part in church fundraising projects and recently taught marriage preparation courses with his wife.
A spokesman for the diocese said Comartin will still be able to attend mass and receive communion.
Ouellet summarized the Catholic view on homosexuality as: It's okay to be gay, but it's not okay to act on it.
"It's not a sin to be a gay. But it may be a sin to perform homosexual acts,'' he told the Senate.
Ouellet said the church faces increased pressure as gay and lesbian couples arrive to have children baptized and expect to be recognized as two fathers or two mothers.
Another leading Canadian Christian group said it also fears it's being ostracized.
"(I have heard someone say) Christians are going to inhabit the closet so recently vacated by gays,'' said Janet Epp Buckingham, a policy director for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
"There's a tremendous amount of concern and fear in our community, feelings that we're being targeted and marginalized. Feelings that we're being considered un-Canadian.''
The Senate is expected to pass the Liberal government's same-sex legislation, Bill C-38, as early as next week.
At Wednesday's Senate hearings, Muslim Imam Abdul Hai Patel proposed a series of amendments that he said would bolster religious freedom.
Some groups fear they will be exposed to lawsuits and possible hate-crimes prosecution for opposing the marriage law.
But Justice Minister Irwin Cotler says there is plenty of protection for religious institutions, in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, in legal jurisprudence, in provincial legislation and in Bill C-38 itself.
First, he noted that Bill C-38 is only binding on city halls and courthouses, not institutions such as mosques, churches and temples.
The bill also says people are free to express their belief that marriage is the exclusive domain of heterosexuals.
Cotler has encouraged provinces to follow the lead of Ontario and Alberta, which have proposed legislation that would let civic officials refuse to marry homosexual couples.
But Ouellet argued Wednesday that the debate is also a symbolic one.
He said the homosexual "lifestyle'' does not lead to procreation and doesn't deserve to be granted status equal to marriage.
"The homosexual lifestyle does not contribute to society.''
One senator replied that government can't legislate along religious lines.
New Brunswick Liberal Pierrette Ringuette compared the three groups, Catholic, Muslim and evangelical Christian, testifying before the Senate to private clubs.
She said even the "three clubs'' at the hearings Wednesday have differences on matters of doctrine.
"But there's a whole world that lives outside these clubs,'' she said.