Catholic Quinn OK With Civil Unions

Illinois governor Pat Quinn plans to keep his promise to sign the civil unions bill passed by legislators this week, no matter if a Catholic bishop says the action would make Quinn a bad Catholic, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

"If the governor wishes to pursue a secular agenda for political purposes, that is his prerogative for which he is accountable to the voters," said Bishop Thomas John Paprocki, who heads the Catholic archdiocese in Springfield, the state capital. "But if he wishes to speak as a Catholic, then he is accountable to Catholic authority, and the Catholic Church does not support civil unions or other measures that are contrary to the natural moral law."

When Quinn was informed of the bishop's statement, he told reporters, "I follow my conscience. I think everyone should do that. I think that's the most important thing to do in life, and my conscience is not kicking me in the shins today."

The legislation has also drawn comments from several Chicago mayoral candidates, involved in a heated race to replace the retiring Richard M. Daley. Most of them have been favorable -- but one mayoral hopeful, state senator and Baptist minister James Meeks, said the question of civil unions should have been put to a popular vote.

"I believe a bill this big and with this much magnitude probably should have been placed on a ballot for a referendum," Meeks, one of the few Democrats to vote against the bill, told the Sun-Times. "I believe in the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. That was the impetus for my vote."