“A law as profoundly iniquitous as this one is not an obligation; it cannot be an obligation … This is not a matter of choice.  All Christians … must be prepared to pay the highest price, including the loss of a job,” was the brutal response that Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo spat out regarding a proposal put forth in the Spanish parliament that would permit gay couples to marry and adopt children.

Cardinal Trujillo, who leads the Pontifical Council on the Family, was speaking to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and made clear his belief that anyone who is asked to perform a gay marriage should be a conscientious objector and refuse to do so.

If Cardinal Trujillo’s remarks are any hint, the 265th pope, Benedict XVI, will likely be uncompromisingly conservative; he has already made it clear that he condemns birth control and the ordination of women, and he asserts that Communion should be withheld from those who support the “grave sins” of abortion and euthanasia. Pope Benedict XVI’s unflinching — not to mention rabid — conservatism has already earned him the moniker “God’s Rottweiler.”

Mimi Hanaoka