There has been much discussion in the press about President Obama’s personal decision “that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” Earlier, the vice president, the putative Catholic, Joseph Biden, said he “was absolutely comfortable with the idea of men marrying men, women marrying women.”
American Catholics at some times are mightily embarrassed when priests and bishops deliver themselves of political statements. We are equally discomfited when politicians deliver themselves of statements touching the realm of religion and belief. Our society usually functions better when specialists stick to their area of expertise.
Certainly the president and the vice president are entitled to express themselves, as am I. Mr. Obama has at least some familiarity with Islam which permits polygamy in some forms. Mr. Biden’s comfort level obviously is different from that he learned in his catechism. As far as I can see, both men are motivated not by any deep theological or spiritual reflection, but are looking forward to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
As regards their personal ruminations on marriage they matter to practicing Catholics not one bit. Our faith teaches that “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.” We find that same definition in the law of the Church, Canon 1055, paragraph one.
A lengthier, more beautiful discussion of marriage is found in the second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Francis Gaudium et Spes, numbers 48-52. The point to all of this is that it conforms to what God said in the very opening verses of the Bible (Gn 1:26-27), “Then God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground. God created man in his image, in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.’
In Revelations 19:7 and 9, First Corinthians 7:39, Ephesians 5:31-32 holy Scripture puts in God’s terms what He wrote in human nature itself: marriage is a sacred union of one man and one woman that establishes the basic unit of society and provides for society’s future.
The Savior who loves us all elevated that union, when it takes place between baptized persons, to the dignity of a sacrament, a means of grace and salvation for those who receive it. Faced with the awesome description of this holy sacrament by God and by His Church the prattling of politicians of whatever species counts for nothing.
What are we to think then of the proposals of civil unions, “gay marriages” and the like? First of all, enacting legislation in accord with the whims of the president and vice president, will involve political hacks at all levels in some mental gymnastics for which they are poorly equipped. Once one abandons the one man, one woman definition, Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden lay themselves open in principle to approving for our people polygamy in all its forms. Polygamy, it seems to me, degrades women; polyandry degrades humanity and is practiced only by weird and small societies. But worse than that, Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama also cannot in principle exclude bestiality, the sexual behavior of man with animals. Speaking of this last, one moral theologian wrote, “This is seldom practiced with tigers.”
Worse than that we have now decided that the basic building block of society, the family, a father, mother and child, is no longer privileged and fostered by the state. This God-forged and Christ-blessed institution is now on a level with corporate contracts and is nothing more. Once we as Catholics, assured of the fact that politicians cannot alter what God has forged and Christ has blessed have to make the political decisions about whatever Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden think is marriage. It is a political decision about which the Church may instruct us, but probably will not command us, nor should it. Sometimes the best remedy for the absurdities that politicians foist upon us is to let them reach their full effect so that everyone can see how truly silly they are. Time was when we studied our national leaders and truly admired them, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, the Adamses (father and son), Jackson, Roosevelt, Eisenhower. We would never have called them silly.