VATICAN on SAME-SEX "MARRIAGE"
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Vatican, Jul. 31 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican has issued a document indicating
the firm opposition of the Church to legal recognition of same-sex
"marriage," and reminding Catholic politicians of their obligation to oppose
such measures.

The 10-point document, entitled Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give
Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons, was released on July
31 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The document had
already been signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of that
Congregation, and circulated among the world's bishops in June. It was
approved by Pope John Paul II on March 28.

In a short but forceful presentation, the Vatican document rebuts popular
arguments in favor of same-sex "marriage" and other forms of legal
recognition for homosexuality. In a powerful warning to Catholic
politicians, the Vatican states that voting in favor of legislation that
recognizes homosexual unions would be "gravely immoral."

(The full text of the document can be found on the Vatican web site.)

The document does not present any new theological arguments regarding
homosexual, but advances clear logical arguments against the legal
acceptance of same-sex unions. The Vatican notes that these arguments are
"drawn from reason" rather than revealed truth, and should be accessible to
all public figures, whether or not they are Catholic or Christian.

The Vatican statement is clearly aimed at politicians and other public
figures, providing them with "rational argumentation" against various
initiatives toward same-sex "marriage," and urging them to make their own
"clear and emphatic" arguments against such proposals. The Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) also points out that bishops in individual
countries could make "more specific interventions" on the issue.

The Introduction to Considerations describes homosexuality as a "troubling
moral and social phenomenon," especially in those countries where activists
have launched drives for " legal recognition to homosexual unions, which may
include the possibility of adopting children." While reiterating the
teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2359) that people with
homosexual inclinations should be treated with respect, the document also
notes the unswerving Church teaching that the homosexual inclination is
"objectively disordered" (2358), and homosexual acts are grave sins against
chastity. (2396)

The Catholic understanding of marriage, the CDF observes, is not the
exclusive teaching of the Church; it is "evident to right reason and
recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world." The document
flatly states: "No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty
that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman."

In marriage, the CDF observes, a "communion of persons is realized involving
the use of the sexual faculty." This common and natural understanding of
marriage, the document continues, is "confirmed by the Revelation" that the
Church has received. The Christian notion of marriage raises the bond
between a man and a woman to new levels, seeing it as "an efficacious sign
of the covenant between Christ and the Church."

Homosexual relationships bear none of these essential characteristics of
marriage, the document says. In clear and striking language, the Vatican
teaches:

"There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in
any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and
family. Marriage is holy, while homosexual acts go against the natural moral
law. Homosexual acts close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not
proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no
circumstances can they be approved."

Societies may take different approaches to the legal treatment of homosexual
acts, the CDF notes. In many cases, the government will quietly tolerate
homosexual behavior. However, the document observes: "Moral conscience
requires that, in every occasion, Christians give witness to the whole moral
truth." Therefore, if the government tolerates homosexual behavior,
Christians have obligations: "stating clearly the immoral nature of these
unions; reminding the government of the need to contain the phenomenon
within certain limits so as to safeguard public morality and, above all, to
avoid exposing young people to erroneous ideas about sexuality and
marriage."

The situation is more extreme when government moves toward the legal
recognition of homosexual unions. In such cases, the Vatican argues, "clear
and emphatic opposition is a duty." The document spells out the moral
obligations for Catholics in public life:


One must refrain from any kind of formal cooperation in the enactment or
application of such gravely unjust laws and, as far as possible, from
material cooperation on the level of their application.


Underlining the importance of the issue, Considerations notes that the legal
recognition of same-sex unions threatens not only the institution of
marriage but the stability of civil society. The document recalls that
"civil law cannot contradict right reason without losing its binding force
on conscience." And since laws that give same-sex relationships the same
status as marriage contradict right reason, they imperil the authority of
the government.

In brief reflections on the anthropological dimensions of sexuality, the
Vatican document observes that "homosexual unions are also totally lacking
in the conjugal dimension, which represents the human and ordered form of
sexuality." In a sentence that could also apply to heterosexual couples who
employ artificial contraceptives, the Vatican teaches:


Sexual relations are human when and insofar as they express and promote the
mutual assistance of the sexes in marriage and are open to the transmission
of new life.


Considerations takes a particularly dim view of government policies that
allow homosexual couples to adopt children. The use of artificial means of
reproduction, enabling same-sex couples to bear children, does not alter the
essential argument here, the Vatican stresses. "Allowing children to be
adopted by persons living in such unions would actually mean doing violence
to these children," the document states. Such policies, the document
continues, are "gravely immoral."

The CDF document quickly refutes the most popular arguments in favor of
legal recognition for homosexuals. First Considerations disposes of the
notion that homosexuals suffer from unjust discrimination:


Differentiating between persons or refusing social recognition or benefits
is unacceptable only when it is contrary to justice. The denial of the
social and legal status of marriage to forms of cohabitation that are not
and cannot be marital is not opposed to justice; on the contrary, justice
requires it.


Next the document takes up the argument that an individual's personal
conduct is protected by "privacy rights."


It is one thing to maintain that individual citizens may freely engage in
those activities that interest them and that this falls within the common
civil right to freedom; it is something quite different to hold that
activities which do not represent a significant or positive contribution to
the development of the human person in society can receive specific and
categorical legal recognition by the State. Not even in a remote analogous
sense do homosexual unions fulfill the purpose for which marriage and family
deserve specific categorical recognition.


Finally the CDF rejects the argument that couples who live together may be
deprived of certain legal rights involving health-care coverage or
inheritance laws. The Vatican document points out that couples "can always
make use of the provisions of law-- like all citizens from the standpoint of
their private autonomy-- to protect their rights in matters of common
interest."

Considerations concludes with a short but very pointed set of statements
about the duties of Catholic political leaders to protect the institution of
marriage. The document states clearly that voting in favor of legislation
that grants legal recognition to same-sex unions would be "gravely immoral."
When such legislation is proposed, a Catholic politician has a "moral duty
to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it."

In societies that have already granted legal recognition to homosexual
unions, the document goes on, political leaders are obliged to "witness to
the truth" by making their opposition to such measures a matter of public
record. Catholic politicians should work for the repeal of these policies,
the CDF notes, and avoid any form of cooperation in their enforcement.


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