As a man of faith I believe that every human person is deserving of love, justice and equality. Yet it is precisely because I believe in love, justice and equality for all that watching the legalization of homosexual marriage in our great country tears my heart apart. Love, justice and equality must be rooted in truth and today’s decision by our nation’s highest court has attempted to warp our nation’s founding principles of justice and equality for all by twisting the truth of what marriage is.
While I recognize that two people of the same sex can love each other very deeply, marital love is more than just a deep love between two people; it is a union which expresses the highest form of love available to mankind. Justice Kennedy is correct that “no union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family.”[1] Yet to truly meet that strict criteria, marriage must be a union of a man and woman that is open to life. Through this marital union, a man and a woman, who because of their biological composition are different from each other, bring together their unique qualities for the good of their family, the good of our country and the good of the world. Men and women, while both equal in dignity and deserving of equal rights, are simply different yet designed to be complementary to each other. When a man and a woman join in marriage they bring together their differences to form something greater than they were apart, a fuller love which is simply not possible when two couples of the same sex attempt marriage. After all when two members of the same sex attempt marriage either the genius of the feminine or the genius of the male is missing from their marriage and thus there is something about their marriage that is incomplete. A homosexual marriage, then, is clearly not the highest form of love possible because part is missing. If our country, rightly wants to value the importance and dignity of each individual man and woman, how can we exclude either a man or a woman from the family unit and consider a family complete or whole with one of the two genders missing?
SCOTUS, in attempting to define what marriage is has tried to lower the standard of love that exists in marriage. They have tried to redefine how human beings interact with themselves at their deepest level. This ruling has effectively washed away the history of our great country and attempted to redefine the future. By redefining marriage, our nation’s highest court, from a legal standpoint, seems to have reopened the gates to the wild west. After all what now keeps our country from legalizing marriage between a person and his pet, or a person and her Barbie Doll?
In issuing their ruling, the Supreme Court has failed to realize that marriage is about a whole lot more than the romantic relationship of two individuals. Marriage is an institution centered on the procreation and education of the next generation of citizens. Only a man and a woman are designed by nature for the teaks of bringing new children into this world and we know that children receive something biologically, parentally and socially unique from both their father and their mother. In the words of Pope Francis “we must reaffirm the right of children to grow up in a family with a father and a mother.”[2] What right does a state have to tinker with what has proven over millennia to be the best atmosphere for children, a loving stable family with both a father and a mother? Who is standing up to promote love, justice and equality for children raised a homosexual marriage?
Our great country was founded by families seeking the freedom to exist beyond oppression. In hijacking love, justice and equality, SCOTUS has effectively extended its oppressive will to all corners of our great nation. Each and every American should be shaken to the core at the flexing of such unprecedented power.
What comes next? Will my Church who refuses to perform same-sex marriage be stripped of our tax exempt status and sued. After all if a baker can be sued for refusing to bake a cake for a homosexual wedding what is stopping people from suing churches who recognize marriage as a union between a man and a woman? As a Catholic priest, will I be arrested, charged and imprisoned for standing for my religious convictions that are millennia old? Will a nation founded under God systematically root out all vestiges of religion under the empirical rule of the Federal Justice System? I don’t know what the future holds for our country, but today I am deeply sadden that the highest court in our land has tried to erase the past and redefine the future. I love our great country, but I cannot violate my own conscience. So while I love all people, want all people to feel welcomed loved and appreciated at my Church and I despise any form of authentic injustice or inequality, I cannot agree with the court and change the definition of what marriage is because after all it’s not up to you, I, a country or the Supreme Court to define what marriage is.
[1] Supreme Court Justice Kennedy in his majority opinion for Obergefell v Hodges issued on 6/26/2015. http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/14pdf/14-556_3204.pdf . Pg 28.
[2] Pope Francis. Address to the members of the International Catholic Child Bureau (BICE). April 11th, 2014. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/april/documents/papa-francesco_20140411_ufficio-cattolico-infanzia.html
Through The Cross To Light 