CATHOLICISM AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: From Commonweal Magazine

The current issue includes four pieces on SSM:

Paul Griffiths argues that although the Church is right about the nature of marriage and human sexuality, nonetheless same-sex marriage can't and shouldn't be stopped in our "profoundly pagan" society: "In cases of this sort, public argument cannot resolve disagreement. This is not to say that there is no truth of the matter, or that there are no good arguments about it. It is only to say what’s also true, which is that public argument will not succeed in producing consensus in this matter. To think that it could is to overestimate its capacities. Catholics should not, therefore, advocate the embodiment of the orthodox view in U.S. marriage law because we think there are persuasive public arguments about the question. There aren't."

Margaret O'Brien Steinfels replies to Griffiths: "Thus, Paul Griffiths seems to me mistaken in his claim that the Catholic view of marriage is so markedly different from that of others that political prudence counsels that Catholics not insist it be reflected in civil law. ...Withdrawal from public debate on the definition of marriage, or any other publicly contested issue is the gesture of sectarians--a perennial temptation of certain Protestant groups, and now of some Catholics, both right and left, as well as the newly self-styled "orthodox Catholics.'"

Edward Collins Vacek writes on "essentialist" vs. "postmodern" views of marriage: "It would be easier to decide whether there is such a thing as 'gay marriage' if one could establish the 'purposes' of marriage. Unfortunately, over the centuries there has been considerable waffling on this issue."

And Daria Donnelly interviews children's author Gregory Maguire about his experiences raising three adopted children with another man: "Questions of sexual complementarity--of what would be ideal for a child--are well worth asking. Certainly, Andy and I are in the vanguard of this (we hope noble and not morally dubious) experiment of charity: a family headed by same-sex partners. As such, we feel a profound interest in making explicit the value of women, of mothers, aunts, neighbor ladies, grandmothers, nuns, and godmothers (each of our children has three godmothers). But since we haven’t the capacity to change our genders--nor would we if we could--the more significant question to us is: Given where Andy and I are, capable adults in need of loving children in a world where children are in need of capable loving adults, how much might be sacrificed if we placed the idea of sexual differentiation and complementarity above all other concerns?"
posted by Eve at 8:51 AM VOTE

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