I am confused. Why are we not more energized and vocal about the assault on marriage that is occurring throughout our country at this time? Yes, the bishops are speaking out eloquently. Here in Minnesota, Archbishop Nienstedt of St. Paul/Minneapolis, my bishop John Quinn from Winona, Bishop Kinney of St. Cloud, Bishop Le Voir of New Ulm, Bishop Hoeppner of Crookston, Bishop Sirba of Duluth, and all the auxialliary bishops in the state are speaking out about the constitutional admendment to define marriage as the union of one man with one woman. This amendment will be put to the voter next year. It must pass.
Why is it that scarcely anyone seems to be speaking of this in daily discourse? I hear no one in the course of my day bring it up. It is being written about in the newspapers. It is being discussed by the hierarchy. It is being published by the Minnesota Catholic Conference. Why the silence among the rest of us?
Too much is at stake here. Despite the rhetoric of those who are pushing the gay “marriage” initiatives in various states, this is not a matter of civil rights. It is a matter of human rights, the rights of children to be parented by a father and a mother and to be raised in a home with both parents present. It is about of restrengthening the foundation of society: marriage and family.
All of us have to become more active in this struggle. If same-sex “marriage” becomes acceptable, then the meaning of marriage dissolves. There becomes no legal reason, it would seem, to exclude from the definition of marriage the union of several people, or the union of what we know to be incestuous relationships. This is a very ominous path we could walk down.
The way I figure it, the reason so many of us are quiet is because we have become so accepting of the roots of the deconstruction of marriage, i.e., we have bought into the contraceptive mentality and in to the tyranny of relativity. Somewhere in the 1960s, Catholics and others began to see contraception as morally neutral and acceptable, and began to also accept such things as premarital sex — all of which loosens the relationship between sexual intimacy, fertility, and the marital relationship. Too many silently accept and live this in their lives, which I believe silences their voices when faced with the whole same-sex “marriage” issue. Sexual intimacy and fertility/fruitfulness have been disconnected, opening the door to other forms of sexual activity that deconstruct marriage.
Blessed Pope John Paul II spoke so well of this in his Theology of the Body. Go to your local Catholic bookstore and buy one of the many books on this topic. It will change your understanding of the beauty of sexuality and marriage.
We have come also to believe that we are the definers of truth and goodness in our lives, that all is relative to the situation of the individual. This is simply not true. God is the definition of truth and goodness. He teaches us all about this. We are to listen and learn and live. We are not Him.
Please, let us speak up in defense of marriage as a union of one man and one woman. We cannot wait.
