Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Features

Defending marriage in an age of unreason

byZenit
2 June 2013
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
wedding rings
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

The challenges faced by those who oppose same-sex “marriage” for religious reasons are growing, with an increasing number of individuals and organisations voicing support for “gay rights,” while speaking out against what they claim to be discrimination and bigotry.

It has been less than a week since the Boy Scouts of America voted to allow openly gay scouts, although adults living active homosexual lifestyles are still prohibited from serving as leaders.

Same-sex “marriage” advocates laud the decision, which they say is a step toward ending discrimination in the faith-based organisation.

Earlier this month, Gary Meier, a priest for the diocese of St. Louis, Missouri, in the US, revealed himself to be the author of the anonymously published Hidden Voices: Reflections of a Gay, Catholic Priest (a second edition of the book was re-released last week under his real name).

Meier, who last year took a leave of absence from his ministry at Saints Teresa and Bridget Church in St Louis, openly criticises what he says is the Church’s “anti-gay” stance.

Proponents of “gay rights” frequently use a combination of personal experience and statistics to advocate their position.

This approach, however, is under scrutiny from academics such as Paul Gondreau, professor of Catholic theology at Providence College, Rhode Island, who says such arguments appeal to sentiment rather than to reason.

Although many who oppose same-sex “marriage” base their stance on their religious beliefs, Mr Gondreau, who recently gave a presentation on same-sex “marriage” for the Acton Institute in Rome, says establishing homosexual marriage in law defies not only faith, but reason.

“It is too often assumed that to oppose gay ‘marriage,’ or to be a defendant of traditional marriage, is to have a position that is necessarily faith-based,” Gondreau said.

“While that may be true for a lot of people, that doesn’t follow.”

Related Stories

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

15 killed in Texas school shooting

Pope Benedict, for instance, “was tireless in reminding the world that the natural structure of marriage is founded upon human nature itself, accessible to reason, and common to all humanity. “

“Common sense,” Gondreau said, “tells us that, just as I need to pay attention to the nature of my lungs – I can’t sniff whatever I want, no matter the pleasure it might give – so too I need to respect the nature of my sexuality, and use it in such a way that it was obviously intended.”

“You can’t just treat nature as irrelevant.

“If you just look at the biological design of the human body, it’s pretty obvious what the sexual organs are made for.”

However, those who support same-sex “marriage” assume that the biological design is “irrelevant, that we can dismiss it as not having any normative value whatsoever.”

“We’re dealing with rival views of what it means to be human,” Gondreau said.

“We’re dealing with rival views of what it is to be happy, what it is to be moral.

“The view which supports gay marriage is predicated on the view that pleasure is the principle good which sex aims at; and that consent is the only criteria which needs to be met for sexual activity to be moral.”

The Catholic Church recognises this pleasure as being an objective good, but argues it is “not the primary good that sexual activity aims at… Rather, there are two higher goods, and sexual activity aims at them jointly: procreation and unitive love. Nature – the way we’re designed, what sexual union is ordered to – targets those together, and intends them to be together.”

Today’s cultural climate, however, makes it difficult to present any rational defense of traditional marriage because those who attempt to do so are silenced amid accusations of bigotry, the professor suggested.

“It is just assumed that there is no objection one can make to the gay lifestyle or to gay marriage. It’s assumed that it’s a discrimination issue,” Gondreau said.

Hearts are closed on the issue of same-sex marriage, he continued, and this prevents people from approaching the issue rationally.

He referred to St Thomas Aquinas, who wrote that man can become desensitised to the general moral sensibility inscribed in human nature – the same moral sensibility that reveals homosexual behavior as being incompatible with human design.

This desensitising can result from “our own bad action, through our own sinful behavior. But we can also get to that point through the culture in which we live.”

“First and foremost, we need to pray,” he said.

“What’s needed here, when hearts are closed, is conversion. But we still need to make the argument, and to challenge those who are unwilling to enter into a civil debate, or even a civil conversation.”

Zenit.org

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Treat asylum seekers as humans

Next Post

Funding for Catholic schools welcomed

Zenit

Related Posts

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north
News

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

25 May 2022
Hong Kong
World

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

25 May 2022
15 killed in Texas school shooting
News

15 killed in Texas school shooting

25 May 2022
Next Post

Funding for Catholic schools welcomed

Marriage under attack by homosexual couple legislation

Thousands gather for Corpus Christi procession

Popular News

  • Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • From a humble start Albanese is sworn in as new prime minister

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 15 killed in Texas school shooting

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north
News

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

by Staff writers
25 May 2022
0

Pope Francis’ delegate to Australia has found time for sightseeing during a busy trip to Far North...

Hong Kong

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

25 May 2022
15 killed in Texas school shooting

15 killed in Texas school shooting

25 May 2022
Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

24 May 2022
Myanmar military burns houses, destroys a village

US bishops applaud San Francisco prelates pastoral response to Pelosi’s decades of abortion advocacy

24 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping