As an elected member of the House of Commons, I am saddened by the recent attempts of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, in the Vatican and in Canada, to bully and threaten MPs on the issue of same-sex marriage. And I am angered by Archbishop Fred Henry of Calgary’s statement that the Prime Minister risks eternal damnation for his stand. As a gay man, involved in a committed, loving relationship with my partner, Max, for almost a decade, I am disgusted by the language of vilification and condemnation in the recent statement issued by the Vatican on this subject, denouncing me and other gay and lesbian people as “evil,” “deviant,” “immoral,” “intrinsically disordered” and “depraved” if we do not live by the priests’ vows of chastity.

And I am sickened by the shameful attack on those gay and lesbian couples who are raising children in loving, nurturing homes. The Vatican accuses these couples of inflicting “violence” on their children.

How dare they utter such hateful lies in the face of their own history — of real abuse inflicted on hundreds and hundreds of children in parishes around the world, abuse covered up, denied and still not fully atoned for to this day?

In the Boston diocese of disgraced former Cardinal Bernard Law, more than 200 priests were involved in the abuse of more than 700 children.

The hypocrisy is breathtaking, as I can attest personally. In 1988, shortly after I came out publicly as gay, I received a call from the head of the local Catholic boys’ school in my riding. Because of the terrible role model I would present to the boys, the head of the school gravely informed me, I would no longer be allowed to attend the graduation ceremonies to present a scholarship I had donated in memory of Tommy Douglas.

A few years later, I read that the head had been one of the priests who had been involved in the abuse of children in another province. He had been shuffled out to B.C. by the church leadership, and then charged criminally.

I recall as well the 1984 statement by Rev. Andre Vallee, then general-secretary of the Conference of Catholic Bishops, condemning sexual relations for pleasure, even within marriage, and saying that the church would “never concede on this point.” Such clergy were out of touch with the reality of Canadian lives at that time, and even more so today.

The church leaders have every right to speak out vigorously on these and other issues. I have, in fact, often praised their statements on economic inequality and their brave work in confronting injustice and oppression in Latin American dictatorships and elsewhere. But as an elected MP, I do not take my direction from them. I am ultimately accountable not to the cardinals in Rome, but to the people I have the honour of representing and to the Constitution and Charter of Rights — the supreme law of the land.

Certainly the Charter also protects freedom of religion and freedom of expression, of priests and politicians, and this must be absolutely ensured. We must, however, vigorously confront intolerance and lies.

For example, in a statement issued earlier this year by Vancouver Archbishop Adam Exner, he wrote that if same-sex marriages were to become legalized, “married persons would lose the rights and benefits under the law to which they are entitled.”

This is absolutely false. In the Netherlands, where gay and lesbian marriages have been legal now for more than two years, there has been no dramatic drop in the birth rate, no mass exodus of heterosexuals from marriage, and no loss of any benefits at all. Life goes on.

Fortunately, there are eloquent voices even within the Catholic Church raised against such bullying. Monsignor Louis Dicaire of the Assembly of Quebec Bishops, underscoring the importance of maintaining a clear separation of church and state (and no doubt recalling earlier days in Quebec when that line was grievously ignored) recently stated, “The Catholic Church is a faith community, not a pressure group.”

Some years ago, another Catholic priest, Rev. Norman Birch of Richmond, B.C., wrote movingly of a young gay man who killed himself in his parish. Father Birch said that “homophobia and hatred” had led to his death. He asked the question, “Whatever happened to ‘love one another as I have loved you’?”

I ask that same question of the leaders of the Catholic Church today, and beseech them to speak out, not with intolerance and condemnation, but for justice, dignity and love.

That is a message that all MPs should heed. I hope MPs ignore the latest edict of the Vatican, and support the right of all of their constituents, in every riding in this country, to be treated with equal respect and dignity, as affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of Canada.