Catholic Insight : Editorials : Catholic Teaching: Defeat the upcoming bill

The Catholic community in Canada must help defeat the proposed Martin- Cotler legislation to remove the legal status of traditional marriage and to replace it with a new invention. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on December 9 last that this man-made construction is constitutional; the real issue is whether it is moral.

So what does the Catholic Church teach about homosexuality?

First, individual homosexual actions are "intrinsically disordered" and "in no case to be approved of " (Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith [CDF], 1975, No. 3; 1992, No. 1). In ordinary language this means that a homosexual act, willfully and freely committed, is a mortal sin. Mortal sins cut a person off from the lifegiving grace of God ("destroy charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law")-Catechism of the Catholic Church (#1855).
The condition of the person which is often associated with these intrinsically evil acts is itself "objectively disordered" (CDF, 1986). The person must strive to overcome this particular inclination while it should evoke the moral and pastoral concern of others, "lest the person is led to believe that living out this orientation in homosexual activity is a morally acceptable option. It is not," (CDF 1992, No. 2).
Violence against homosexuals is to be deplored and condemned.
While all unjust discrimination is to be rejected, there are areas where just discrimination is necessary such as, "for example, in the placement of children for adoption or foster care, in employment of teachers or athletic coaches, and in military recruitment" (CDF, 1992, #11). While homosexuals, as human persons, have the same rights as everyone else, nevertheless these rights are not absolute (#12). There is no "right" to homosexuality (#13).
The homosexual condition is not comparable to race, gender, ethnicity, age, or colour. As objectively disordered, it can never form the basis for human "rights," nor for changing civil statutes or laws. The contrary view cannot but have an adverse effect on the correct understanding of the nature and rights of the family (CDF, 1992).
It is inappropriate for Church authorities to endorse or remain neutral toward adverse legislation even if it grants exceptions to Church organizations and institutions (CDF, 1992, #16).

What does the Catholic Church say about the newly-invented same-sex "marriages"?

A. Document One

On July 30, 2003, the CDF published the June 3 letter "Considerations regarding...unions between homosexual persons" (Toronto Star, "Ban gay marriages: Pope," August 1). It includes these points:

"Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It is established by the Creator, with its own nature, essential properties, and purpose."
"The approval or legitimization of evil is something far different from the toleration of evil."
"Civil law cannot contradict right reason without losing
its binding force on conscience."
"Allowing children to be adopted" [within homosexual unions] "is gravely immoral."
"The Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it. To vote in favour ... is gravely immoral."

B. Reception of Holy Communion

One year later, on June 14, 2004, CDF Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger published a letter entitled "Worthiness to receive Holy Communion" (text, Catholic Insight, Sept. 2004, p. 23). In it, he states: "When a person's formal cooperation" [regarding grave sins] "becomes manifest (understood, in the case of a Catholic politician, as his constantly campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws" [Editor: and today also, without a doubt, same-sex "marriage"], his pastor should meet with him, "informing him that he is not to present himself for Holy Communion until he brings to an end the objective situation of sin, and warning him that he will otherwise be denied the Eucharist" (#5).

In section #4, the Cardinal had noted already that "the minister of Holy Communion may find himself in the situation where he must refuse to distribute Holy Communion to someone, such as in cases of declared excommunication, a declared interdict, or an obstinate persistence in manifest sin (cf. Canon 915) (emphasis mine).

C. Pope John Paul II

Additional recent teaching pronouncements by Pope John Paul II:

Dec. 28, 2003: "Marriage is a human and divine gift that must be defended," especially today against "a misunderstood sense of rights."
Feb. 28, 2004: "Lawmakers and Catholic legislators may never vote in favour of laws attacking life or attacking the family." Marriage "is the pillar of society ... the union of man and woman, open to life, which gives rise to the natural institution of the family."
June 4, 2004: "Rights" are at times derived from [nothing but] self-centered demands ... prostitution and pornography in the name of adult choice; the acceptance of abortion in the name of women's rights; the approval of same-sex unions in the name of homosexual rights.
June 17, 2004: Warns Catholics and, in particular, pastors of the Church, that failure to proclaim the truth about marriage and the family is a "grave omission." "It is necessary to proclaim with firmness, as a real service to society, the truth on marriage and the family established by God" (Zenit).
Sept. 6, 2004 (to Canada's new ambassador): "Established by the Creator with its own nature and purpose, and preserved in natural moral law, the institution of marriage necessarily entails the complementarity of husbands and wives who participate in God's creative activity through the raising of children. Spouses thereby ensure the survival of society and culture, and rightly deserve specific and categorical legal recognition by the state."
"Any attempts to change the meaning of the word 'spouse' contradict right reason: legal guarantees, analogous to those granted to marriage, cannot be applied to unions between persons of the same sex without creating a false understanding of the nature of marriage."
Dec. 18, 2004: In discussion with the ambassador from Hungary the Holy Father condemned same-sex "marriage" as an attack on the fabric of society and called on Catholics to combat "the aggressive attempt to legally undermine the family." "Attacks on marriage and the family, from an ideological and legal aspect, are becoming stronger and more radical every day" (Reuters).
Jan. 10, 2005: The Pope used his annual message to diplomats accredited to the Holy See (174 countries) to "deliver an unequivocal condemnation of gay marriage" (New York Times, Jan. 11).

"Today the family is often threatened by social and cultural pressures which tend to undermine its stability; but in some countries the family is also threatened by legislation which - at times directly - challenge its natural structure, which is and must necessarily be that of a union between a man and a woman founded on marriage."

Family, he said, "must never be undermined by laws based on a narrow and unnatural vision of man" (also Toronto Star, "Pope targets gay marriage," Jan. 11).

D. Conclusion

The Church's teaching is clear: same-sex "marriage" is unacceptable; Catholics may neither promote it nor vote for it, on pain of being cut off from the sacraments when they (obstinately) continue to publicly support it.

In Canada, Vancouver's Archbishop Raymond Roussin has reminded Catholic lawmakers that they have a moral duty to clearly oppose the legislation and that voting in favour of a law so harmful to the common good is "gravely immoral" (Lifesite, Dec. 9). In the East, the Bishop of St. John, NB, Faber MacDonald, has said the same: "Catholic lawmakers must make themselves aware of the Church's teaching because they have a moral duty to clearly oppose such "legislation" [as the redefinition of marriage] (New Freeman, Dec. 24, 2004).