Canadian Bishop Proposes Solution to Same-Sex “Marriage” Dilemma

The March continues. It's clear what's required. No half measures will do. Only total affirmation of our OKness is acceptable. Only celebration of the One Thing that Matters is acceptable. Anything less is a denial of human rights. Period. So say the pro-gay reasonable and their bench-warming cheer-leaders in Ottowa.

Bishop Neville had bent over backward. He had played a semantic game that effectively contorted Catholic Social Teaching on care for and solidarity with the needy. The Vatican would sensibly balk at the de-facto approval of Civil Unions. Still, he did what he could.

It wasn't enough:

Neville responded curtly rejecting the Bishop’s proposal: “Basically I hear that as no reconciliation between . . .”

Facing such obstinance, at least he had the courage to witness:

Bishop Henry cut in saying, “You're right. If you're asking me to accept a watered-down understanding of the institution of marriage, that's not going to happen.”

The radical reconstruction of marriage is simply another old patriachal throwback that reasonable people must re-order according to their own happiness. For every reasonable person knows that there's nothing out there, anyway.

"Religion is nice if it makes you feel better," a reasonable man or woman may say, "but you're not going to impose your standards on me. No, I'm the center of my universe. I make the rules. I am reasonable, after all. Of course, I can trust the state to fulfill my desires. That's why the state exists. Only the reasonable should control it, of course. Who else has the expertise to manage all these desires?"

The Fool sees it differently. He or she says, "Well, actually, there is a God. He loves us into being. He desires that we become one with him by seeking relationship with him on this earth. Marriage is a sacramental way in which a man and a woman can unite to each other in a way that unites them together with God. They become an image of his relationship to his people. They image the day when Christ will wed all gathered in His name. Therefore, marriage has a sacred meaning brought forth into our society. It can't be redefined because it was discovered, not devised. Gay men and women are simply ontologically incapable of the complementarity necessary for a union of two to manifest a joint union with God. Gay marriage can be neither life-giving nor love-giving in continuous and complementary measure. It can't exist. To recognize "gay marriage" is to deny marriage it's unique and sacred character. That is to diminish an important universal truth that helps us all to become fully human, and ultimately, fully divine."

In more secular terms, the good of society rests on the good of its basic cell, the family. Society is the interconnection of associations, not the begrudging social contract of sovereign individuals or the emergent historical inevitability of the glorious workers collective. Thus, what benefits these associations benefit society. Family is the association par excellance, upon which society falls should families fall. Thus, what is good for the family is good for society. A marriage between a man and a woman, in which the couple are open to the possibility of life and committed to raising children in a nurturing and formative home, provide the channel of stability and contribution for the entire family. This provides society with contributive members that possess the stability to endure society's volatile turns. Thus, marriage benefits families and society as a whole.

Gay "marriage", on the other hand, harms the family. The relationship is ontologically incapable of generating children. Aside from adoption or in vitro fertilization and its ilk, such a couple will remain childless. They will not possess the stability that provides each participant with the contributive powers society requires. Society thus suffers from such unions.

The Reasonable people of the world like MP Neville are too practical to get that. Gay activists support her party; she needs party member votes to stay in office. The common good of society must take a back seat when party politics has the floor.

Fortunately, Bishop Henry remembered he is a Fool in time. For now.