The leader of Canberra's Catholics has called the postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage a test of national maturity for public debate and predicted Australians will vote against a change to the law.
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Canberra and Goulburn Archbishop Christopher Prowse has encouraged priests in the diocese to make the case for a "no" vote to parishioners, calling on all Canberrans, including newly arrived migrants, to enrol to take part in the survey.
"There is encouragement by me as the bishop to ask people to get engaged in the discussion and to be particularly informed about why the Catholic Church consistently stands alongside the traditional marriage model," Archbishop Prowse told The Canberra Times.
"We have love and care and respect for same-sex orientated people. They are in our communities, they are in our neighbourhoods, they are in our parishes. We love them and want to walk with them.
"At the same time we consider what we now call traditional marriage - that is the love between a man and a woman that is open to the possibility of children - to be one of the greatest treasures of humanity. It predates Christianity, it's not a religious argument, it's an argument from humanity.
"We'd like to respectfully encourage people to think long and hard about the great treasure traditional marriage has been, is and, please God, will be in the future."
Describing himself as "quietly confident" more people than expected would vote to maintain the existing definition of marriage, Archbishop Prowse said a national "yes" vote would require significant new protections for religious organisations and individuals.
"The government have already said that if it was to be a 'yes' vote, there would be exemptions for religious ministers but we're not all that happy with that type of debate because we feel it shouldn't be exemptions just for clergy who might be performing religious ceremonies," he said.
"It should be for all people who have a conscientious objection to participating in same-sex marriage in any form, whether it be religiously of if they are involved in weddings. Overseas there has been all kinds of difficulties here with regard to exemptions."
The comments come as Melbourne's Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart pointedly warned the church's 180,000 employees they were expected to uphold its teachings and failure to do so could be treated "very seriously".
Archbishop Hart, chair of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, said moves to fire teachers or parish employees for not following church teaching was best dealt with at the local level.
Archbishop Prowse struck a different tone in an interview before Archbishop Hart's comments were published.
"I think it is a bit of a test of our maturity as Australian people, that we can over the next few months engage in a respectful debate with each other and ensure all sides of the argument are heard, evaluated and appreciated carefully," he said.
"Every priest is a man of great prudence and he knows his people better than others and can make his judgement on the best way of bringing across this topic.
"What we don't want is indifference or any sort of letting others make decisions for us. I think the sort of robust democracy that we have here in this wonderful country of Australia means we should all be able to participate," he said.
The High Court will consider a challenge to the non-compulsory postal vote on September 5 and 6.
