Statement of Most Reverend Arthur J.
Serratelli
Bishop of the catholic Diocese of Paterson
Gay Marriage: Reason
Gone Wild
In the last 50 years, the modern landscape of sexual mores
has shifted in dramatic ways. The acceptance of unilateral
divorce, cohabitation, alternate lifestyles and birthing by means of technology
and without sexual intercourse have contributed to a loss of appreciation
for the special and unique role of marriage. In today’s struggle between a
secularist morality and a morality based on human reason, the sacred institution
of marriage is the battlefield.
Until recently, same-sex couples did not marry anywhere in
the world. Now they do in the
Individuals steeped in the Judaeo-Christian heritage have a deep respect for marriage
as an institution coming from the hands of the Creator who gave Eve to Adam and
Adam to Eve (Gn 1:27 and 2:18-24). For Catholics,
marriage has a most special dignity. Christ raised the union of a man and a
woman in marriage to a sacrament. He made it the sign of his own love for the
Church (cf. Eph 5: 21-33).
Seventy-three percent of people who attend religious
services weekly oppose same-sex unions. However, the issue is more fundamental
than a particular religious doctrine. The issue of same-sex marriages is about
the very structure of the human person as male and female and the right ordering
of nature. In the natural design of creation, there is a complementarity of man and woman as male and female.
“Precisely because man and woman are different, yet complementary, they can come
together in a union that is open to the possibility of new life” (U.S.
Conference of Catholic Bishops, Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual
Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care, Nov. 14, 2006).
Marriage is not a private relationship between two
individuals. It is a public act. Marriage is not just a way of expressing human
affection between two individuals. Marriage has a primary purpose. It is
oriented to the common good, not just the good of the individuals. For this
reason, marriage has always been something more than a private arrangement.
In our society, the desire to overcome prejudice and to
guarantee equal rights for all is something good and worthy of praise. A society
that promotes hatred and relegates certain individuals to a second-class status
violates both charity and justice. However, the arguments that would place
same-sex unions on the same level of marriage on the basis of equality are
simply not rational.
Entering marriage is something much more than the exchange
of love and sexual intimacy. When a man and woman marry, they begin something
new. The gift of sexuality draws a man and a woman so that they form a stable,
loving union that welcomes children.
By nature, sexual intimacy is ordered to marriage. The
inclination to sexual activity between same-sex individuals is disordered. In
fact, “any tendency toward sexual pleasure that is not subordinated to the
greater goods of love and marriage is disordered…” (ibid.). Some individuals do experience an inclination
to same-sex attraction. The inclination itself does not make what is disordered
morally permissible; any more than the inclination to impatience or anger confer
on these tendencies the imprimatur of good.
Today’s tolerance of any type of sexual activity outside of
marriage has seriously impaired this proper understanding of the very purpose of
human sexuality. Certainly, law should recognize the equality of every
individual. But laws that frame the question of same-sex unions in terms of
equality ignore the logical distinction between the individual with his or her
basic human dignity and marriage with its fundamental nature and purpose. Good
law recognizes the purpose of marriage.
If marriage is simply a matter of expressing sexual
affection between individuals, why stop at two individuals? Why not three or
four or more? “By socially defining and supporting a particular kind of sexual
union, the society defines for its young what the preferred relationship is and
what purposes it serves. Successful societies do this first of all because
children need and deserve fathers as well as mothers” (Maggie Gallagher,
“What is Marriage For? The Public Purposes of Marriage
Law,”
We cannot be indifferent to the question of law and
same-sex marriage. Nor can we delude ourselves into thinking it is merely a
personal issue for those who enter such unions. When legislatures pass laws and
courts make decisions, they are actually “structuring principles of man's life
in society, for good or for ill. They ‘play a very important
and sometimes decisive role in influencing patterns of thought and behavior’”
(Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae,
90).
Laws externally shape the way we live. They also influence
the next generation’s understanding not only of behavior but of morality as
well. Laws that equate same-sex unions with marriage devalue marriage itself and
darken the moral vision of a people.
“The future of humanity passes by way of the family” (Pope
John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio, 86). Therefore, in our private views and
public actions as Catholics committed to the common good, we have a moral
obligation to defend marriage as a union between a man and a woman that is open
to life. Our society refuses to allow the wisdom of its religious heritage to
influence public discussion. In the public forum, we suffer a loss of faith.
When our courts pass decisions contrary to the truth of the human person, we
also suffer the loss of logic and reason gone wild.
Published in The Beacon May 22, 2008