From time immemorial, marriage has always been understood as the union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all other relationships.
Engraved on Every Human Conscience
First and foremost, such a union results in the procreation of the human race — the most fundamental and necessary component of society's existence. Secondly, as study after study has confirmed, the traditional family provides the most stable and nurturing environment for the social, psychological, spiritual, and emotional needs of children. There is no authentic substitute for this. God has revealed this through the Natural Law itself. And, deep down, everyone knows this truth for it is engraved on every human conscience on the planet.
The very reason marriage survived throughout the centuries, while others have not, is because it reflects the natural order which God has created. When man tries to socially engineer a union — such as the Canadian judiciary has recently attempted within regards to same-sex marriage, and make a pretense that it is just as valid or sublime as an authentic marriage — it is doomed to failure. Such a union does not fail because it is has been introduced into an intolerant or repressive society. Rather, from ancient history, we know that homosexual communities within Greek civilizations simply died out. Unable either to sustain or propagate themselves, they ended up bringing down a whole culture with them. The failure of homosexually permissive societies, therefore, is not political, social, or ideological.
Rather, failure arises from the refusal to accept that the homosexual act is against human nature itself. It is against the most fundamental and intrinsic part of our being which, when expressed sexually, is to create. A man having sexual intercourse with another man cannot create new life. Neither can a woman within another woman. Their act is closed to creation. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.
Of course some Canadian homosexual activists object to this teaching; for not all marriages between heterosexual couples are physically capable of procreation. Does this mean their marital embrace is also immoral? I often hear. By no means. For the Natural Law speaks of the male and female gender generally and not of individual couples who, because of a biological misfortune, cannot conceive. If the proponents of homosexual marriages wish to dispute this, they must first concede that this scenario is the exception.
A Vicious Reconstruction
On the other hand, homosexual activity, in its general form, is fundamentally closed to human life as a rule. There are no exceptions. Thus the homosexualist's attempt to reconstruct the marital embrace is, therefore, a denial of the most essential and fundamental truth of human physiology. It rejects the simplicity with which the male and the female compliment one another. A bolt and a nut go together to accomplish a purpose in basic mechanics. Two bolts do not and cannot do so.
As the Holy Father teaches in Familiaris Consortio, the conjugal act fulfills two purposes: to procreate and to unite. From this flows a wonderful consequence of the conjugal union. Its climax is intended to physically reflect the spiritual joy over the creative act in which a man and a woman participate. None of these characteristics, however, can be separated from one another. One cannot legitimately separate the procreative from the unitive without dire consequences.
In other words, according to the Natural Law, conjugal relations are not intended simply for the pleasure to the senses they bring. This rules out both contraception and homosexual activity. You cannot mimic conjugal relations for pleasure and for procreation without the intent of uniting yourself with the other person. This rules out fornication, and this rules out selfish sexual gratification that pleases only one party, even within marriage.
Rather, the conjugal act is a sacred and noble thing. It is a sublime participation in the creation and propagation of the human race for the greater glory of God, and as such, it cannot be morally manipulated or interrupted in any way. Its attributes cannot be pulled apart and arbitrarily heightened at the expense of the very purpose of the act itself. The suppression of any element of the act results in a distortion of its role in building up the family and society. It is a vicious reconstruction of the creative act which mankind has been entrusted with, and it is a direct assault on the image of God Himself.
Government Exists to Serve Families
Despite our efforts, it does not matter whether we seek to change man's image. The image of man has already been set. We cannot change it. If the Canadian judiciary attempts to do so, only disintegration and degeneration await Canada — both as a culture and as a nation. And this is a sober reminder to our so-called great “patriotic” social engineers who spare not a moment in cheaply wrapping themselves in the Canadian flag.
Marriage and families provide the very reason why government exists. As this foundation comes under attack and begins to disintegrate, the traditional family, as we understand it today, will as well. If we can tell ourselves that it's acceptable to divorce one another, what makes us foolishly think that our country can stay together when our marriages cannot? If we can tell ourselves that abortion is a “noble choice”, then what makes us naively think that our whole federation cannot be dismembered as well? And if we can tell ourselves that a man can marry a man, why can't he marry two men or three?
Canada, you've killed the children in your womb. You've undermined and manipulated marriage. You have turned your back on the heritage that built you. And now? Now you are going to get what you want: the death and annihilation of a culture and a civilization. Barring Canadians actually showing some passion about the state of the family in this country, we may last another generation at most. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Jean Chretien seems intent upon finishing the sexual revolution in Canada that his predecessor Pierre Trudeau started.
(John Pacheco is a Financial Analyst and a Catholic apologist who writes from Ottawa, Canada, where he lives with his wife and two daughters. He is the founder and editor of Catholic-Legate.com, a Canadian lay apostolate of Catholic apologetics.)
(This article originally appeared in The Wanderer and is reprinted with permission. To subscribe call 651-224-5733.)
