CP National News
Article published: Sep 30, 2005
by: STEVE MERTL

VANCOUVER (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin said Friday he separates his privately held Roman Catholic beliefs from his duties as a politician, despite the apparent threat he could lose access to the sacrament of communion for his government's stand on same-sex marriage.
Catholic bishops meeting in Vatican City at the first synod led by newly anointed Pope Benedict XVI are expected to consider refusing communion to politicians who pass laws that violate church doctrine. "I am a practising Catholic, in fact I am a strong Catholic," Martin said at a news conference with visiting Mexican President Vicente Fox.
"But I am also a legislator and I believe in the separation of church and state."
The Liberals' same-sex marriage legislation became law in July despite the opposition from several churches, including Roman Catholics, after courts in several provinces ruled the existing federal marriage law was unconstitutional.
Martin said his responsibility as prime minister was to uphold Canadians' rights as defined by the courts and to take the widest possible perspective into account.
"I believe in the Charter of Rights and I do not believe the prime minister of the country can cherry-pick those rights," he said.
"Have I discussed (this) with senior churchmen, with bishops? The answer is yes, I have. But as far as any further comment, I'm a legislator and that's public and I will comment on my public position. As a Catholic, that's my faith and I'll keep that to myself."
He amplified it in French, saying "the practise of my faith is a private issue."
Before Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became the Pope, he was the Vatican's chief monitor of Catholic orthodoxy. He had labelled politicians who voted for same-sex marriage laws as "gravely immoral," but stopped short of spelling out the consequences of their position.
Although the five Canadian bishops attending the synod have no common position, some Canadian Catholic clergy have said politicians who voted for amending the law to allow same-sex marriage are not fit to take communion, a wafer in which Catholics believe they receive the body of Jesus Christ.
A parish priest in Martin's Montreal riding said the prime minister no longer deserved the sacrament and prayed Martin would lose his riding in the next election.