Throughout the last week, gay marriage has been all over the news -- even in Missouri. Senator Claire McCaskill for the first time expressed her support for marriage equality, Governor Jay Nixon dodged questions on the matter and Anheuser-Busch inspired homophobic beer drinkers to weigh in on Facebook.
And now we have for you the commentary of an influential St. Louisan who still very much does not support gay marriage -- but who doesn't want to attack gay people, either!
Cardinal Timothy Dolan made headlines over the weekend for fresh comments on same-sex marriage. Has his stance changed at all? Check out video footage below.
Dolan -- who graduated from the St. Louis Preparatory Seminary in Shrewsbury and eventually became archbishop of New York (and was a rumored pope candidate) -- did interviews this past week with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos for This Week and CBS' Bob Schieffer for Face the Nation.
And he has received a lot of attention for his comments on marriage equality.
Here's his interview with Stephanopoulos.
Stephanopoulos asked, "What do you say, as a minister, as a pastor, to a gay couple that comes to you and say, 'We love God. We love the Church. But we also love each other, and we want to raise a family in faith.' What do you say to them?"
Dolan replied:
Well, the first thing I'd say to them is, "I love you, too. And God loves you, and you are made in God's image and likeness. And we want your happiness...and you're entitled to friendship." But we also know that God has told us that the way to happiness, that especially when it comes to sexual love, that is intended only for a man and woman in marriage, where children can come about naturally. We gotta be, we gotta do better to see that our defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people. And I admit, we haven't been too good at that. We try out darndest to make sure we're not an anti-anybody.
The "entitled to friendship" line has since made its way into many headlines and reports.
Here's footage from CBS where he made similar comments.
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