Catholic Church was wrong to reaffirm its ban on blessing same-sex marriages

Same-sex couples

Regarding “Vatican statement on same-sex marriage revives faith dilemma for LGBTQ Catholics,” (March 21):

The Vatican not only will not allow same-sex couples to marry in the Catholic Church, but now has taken the further step of refusing to bless them.

The basic rationale is that marriage is for having and raising children. Since same-sex individuals cannot produce children, they can’t marry.

Well then, what about my aunt who was too old to have children when she married, married in the Catholic Church? Her motive was love, companionship, caring for another person.

And what about my wife and I?

We’ve been married 50 years. During the first half of that time we raised children. During all that time we loved one another. Marriage is not only about children; it’s also — mainly — about companionship, love, caring for another person.

Same-sex couples are capable of loving one another just as much as heterosexual couples — if we support them.

If the Catholic Church will not bless them, let us who sit beside them in the pews do so.

William F. Powers, Chapel Hill

NC schools

Regarding “Robinson offers NC schools scrutiny instead of help,” (March 18 Editorial):

The N.C. State Board of Education is instituting Critical Race Theory (CRT) into the education of our youth. CRT teaches a history that portrays our nation’s founders as fundamentally racist and is inconsistent with our founding principles.

CRT is a current political idea which, to use a phrase in the editorial, “promotes political polarization.”

No nation is perfect, but our nation’s history illustrates a long struggle that demonstrates our continual effort to fulfill its promise to the people that “all men are created equal.” There are numerous events in this history that demonstrate this fundamental principle.

The CRT curriculum is destructive to unifying us as one people and to the goal of building a strong nation.

James P. Weaver, Bahama

Deaths in custody

Regarding “NC won’t share federal data on deaths in police custody,” (March 21):

I just read that the Death in Custody Reporting Act is not being used as intended in our state. Without this reporting, I would not have known. Bravo to the free press!

Any time we readers complain about the price of a subscription, a cartoon we don’t like, or a headline that seems off, we need to remember that this is what our local paper gives us: insight into the failures of our democracy and instructions on how to correct these flaws.

Jo Garrison, Raleigh

Nursing homes

The N.C. COVID-19 Relief Act puts our most vulnerable senior citizens in grave danger while offering sweeping protections to nursing homes.

As an attorney, I have represented families with compelling cases that expose how this act shields nursing homes from civil liability for negligence during the period of the COVID-19 emergency and/or if the nursing home is “providing health care services in good faith.”

The only exception is proving “gross negligence,” a difficult legal standard to show.

Now that healthcare workers have access to the vaccine, it’s no longer necessary to understaff facilities to reduce COVID spread. Now that there is a vaccine, provisions in this act only create perverse incentives for nursing homes, allowing them to evade accountability for neglecting residents.

Those provisions are a major windfall for nursing homes, allowing them to blame every mishap on COVID. They should be immediately repealed to protect our seniors.

Nick Mendez, Wilmington

ICE detention

Last fall media coverage of ICE detention centers blew up after reports of unnecessary hysterectomies performed on ICE detainees.

What about the risk of COVID-19 in these detention facilities?

For a while, this issue received a lot of attention. It seemed like the public was finally paying attention to the atrocities that have been taking place in ICE detention facilities for far too long.

Why is it so easy to now forget that hundreds of thousands of people are being held in detention centers? Reflect on that and what it says about our “great” country.

Ella Srikhirisawan, Chapel Hill

This story was originally published March 22, 2021 at 1:59 PM.