The Vatican is raising the stakes in Canada's plans to legalize same-sex marriage by issuing a directive for Catholic politicians around the globe to make their politics consistent with their faith.
The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops predicted yesterday the appeal may give pause to Parliament, where Catholicism is the dominant religion.
"What it may do is that it will cause some conscience problems for several MPs," said general secretary Msgr. Peter Schonenbach.
But a spokesman for Justice Minister Martin Cauchon, one of many Catholic MPs, said the minister will base his vote on equality rights, not religion.
"His personal religious beliefs are not the issue here," said Tim Murphy. "As minister of justice, he is the justice minister for all Canadians. The key thing we have pointed out is that this is a fundamental issue of equality and there will be protection for religious freedom."
A federal bill legalizing same-sex marriage, while stating that religious institutions will not be forced to perform ceremonies, has been sent to the Supreme Court of Canada for a legal opinion on whether it complies with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. MPs will then be told to vote with their conscience instead of along party lines.
On Thursday, the Vatican will release new instructions for Catholic politicians to oppose same-sex marriage. The right already has been adopted in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Msgr. Schonenbach described the 12-page document as "a general reflection that pulls together things that have been said before."
Although the instructions do not specifically mention Canada, Msgr. Schonenbach noted that this country's plans have drawn significant attention from the church internationally and likely played a role in the Vatican's appeal. He said he has done interviews with Vatican Radio on the issue.
The document, titled Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons, builds on the pontiff's approved guidelines for politicians, issued last January, calling on them to oppose abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage.
Jason Kenney, a Catholic Canadian Alliance MP who is against gay marriage, said he doesn't think that the Vatican's call will make much difference.
"Politicians who come from the Catholic tradition whose convictions are formed in part by their faith, this should be nothing new to them and they should already have taken that into consideration," Mr. Kenney said.
"They're all free to decide whether or not, and to what extent, they will form their conscience and actions in accordance with the church teaching. It's up to each individual."
Mr. Kenney acknowledged that few politicians publicly declare their religious affiliation and are therefore not in a position where they have to answer to voters about faith.
The appeal from the Vatican is not expected to sway other powerful Catholics in the Liberal government, including Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his heir apparent, Paul Martin, who intend to vote for the bill.
Mr. Chrétien, Mr. Martin and Mr. Cauchon all come from predominantly Catholic Quebec, where the church has a loose grip on the province's largely liberal society.
Mr. Chrétien has already come under fire from Marcel Gervais, the archbishop of Ottawa, for the prime minister's social views clashing with his Catholic religion. Most recently, the archbishop denounced the prime minister's pro-choice position on abortion.
The Vatican's directive expands on an appeal from religious institutions across Canada for the federal government to reject same-sex marriage.
As in the Canadian population in general, Catholicism is the dominant religion in the federal Parliament, although exact records are not kept.
In the general population, 43.2 per cent of Canadians identified themselves as Catholic in the last federal census, which makes the religion by far the most common. In second place was the United Church, the declared faith of 9.6 per cent of Canadians.