Gay marriage a 'misnomer' by Church teaching

John Grabowski, a professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America, told CNA that marriage in the Catholic Church's teaching is based on“unity, indissolubility, and [is ordered] toward life,” or the begetting of children.

“Those criteria can only be met in a union between a man and a woman,” he said.“They cannot be met in a union between two men and two women. 'Gay marriage' is thus a misnomer in the Church's understanding.”

The Supreme Court's redefinition of marriage, Grabowski argued, was an act of“judicial fiat” rather than a recognition of what marriage actually is. He said the high court was functioning more as a“cultural barometer” reflecting an erroneous shift in perception on what marriage is.

“It would be similar to if the court passed a rule saying we could call a square a circle,” he said.“It's just not based on the reality of the natural world.”

The Obergefell ruling came after years of LGBT activist efforts to redefine marriage both within individual states and at the federal level. Advocates had argued that there was no meaningful reason to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples and that to do so constituted discrimination.

Many critics have claimed that the Church's broader teaching on marriage actually left the door open for same-sex couples to marry - for instance, they argued, by allowing opposite-sex couples to marry even if one or both of the spouses are infertile, the Church implicitly divorces biological childbearing from marriage itself.

Grabowski acknowledged that the Church does allow infertile couples to get married (and to stay married if infertility occurs at a later date). But he pointed out that the Church does in fact prohibit marriage for those who are impotent, or constitutionally incapable of intercourse.

The key point for the Church, he said, is what St John Paul II called the“spousal meaning of the body.” The late pope argued that men and women“exist in the relationship of the reciprocal gift of self,” ordered to the communion of“one flesh” of which the Bible speaks in Genesis.

The Church's teaching, Grabowski said,“is based on the natural law. It tells us that the way God designed us is for the good of our flourishing, both as individuals and as the good of society.”

Though marriage advocates have continued to criticize the Supreme Court's decision over the past decade, others have at times suggested a pivot away from directly challenging it at the legal level.

In 2017, for instance, Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Bishop Robert Barron affirmed his opposition to gay marriage

Grabowski acknowledged that one“could say, realistically, the ship has sailed and the political question is dead.”

“But that's a political judgment,” he said. Catholics should not lose sight of the goal to reestablish correct laws on marriage, he argued.

“In terms of something to hope for, pray for, and to the degree that we're able to, work for it - that's something Catholics should aspire to.”

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