On June 26th the Supreme Court ruled (by a slim 5 to 4 majority) that all states must now grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Writing for the majority Justice Anthony Kennedy contended that committed same-sex partnerships should be treated as fully equivalent in dignity and honor to traditional marriage, and that by not doing so traditional morality is demeaning and oppressive to same-sex persons.
Other events too—such as the media’s recent celebration of transgenderism—signal that our culture is moving more and more toward the view that marriage and sexuality lack any objective structure and that the distinction between men and women is utterly insignificant.
Catholics will increasingly be pressured to assent to those views, on pain of being categorized as bigoted and hateful. In addition, the argument will be made that faithful Catholics should just shut up about sexual morality, since it is an unimportant issue in any case.
But it is antithetical to our faith to think of our bodies as having no objective meaning or moral importance, as if they can be treated as having whatever meaning we choose to impose on them. We our called to conform our feelings to what is objectively true, not the other way around.
Our faith is centered on God as truth, and on God who became flesh, died and rose from the dead, and through his priests makes his flesh and blood present for us on our altars.
Our bodies—redeemed by and united to God incarnate—are inherently meaningful and important, not mere occasions for obtaining desirable experiences.
What we believe about marriage and sexuality is an important part of the Gospel. Everyone is called to integrate his or her sexuality with love of God and love of neighbor.
And marriage is a sacrament, one a large portion of Catholics are called to, and that all Catholics are called to promote. Further, as St. Paul teaches, the mystery of the union of the husband and the wife in marriage is a key analogy for understanding Christ’s union with his Church (Eph. 5:22-33).
Confusion about marriage leads to confusion about Christ and the Church. So Catholics need to understand and articulate clearly the basics of Christian teaching on marriage and sexuality. Continue reading
Sources
- Patrick Lee holds the John N. and Jamie D. McAleer Chair of Bioethics, and is the Director of the Center for Bioethics, at Franciscan University of Steubenville. This article is from The Catholic World Report.
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