The Call to Marriage is Woven Deeply into the Human Spirit
God who created man and woman out of love also calls him to love – the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is Himself love. Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man.
[Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 1604]
Is same sex “marriage” a civil right?
In the Church’s view same-sex “marriage” is not a civil right. A strong desire does not make a civil right. Every man and every woman has a right to enter into marriage, but marriage as an institution can only be between a man and a woman. Same-sex “marriage” is not a civil right because same-sex couples cannot fulfill the core public purpose of marriage: protecting children by bringing men and women into the only kind of union that can make new life and give children mothers and fathers.
This is not only the Church’s view. Marriage has its roots in natural law, which transcends all man-made law. Marriage as a union of a man and a woman is a natural, universal human institution that unites mothers and fathers in the work of childrearing and family life.
Would maintaining the definition of marriage as a union of one man and one woman take away any benefits currently provided to civil union partners?
No. New Jersey’s, the Civil Union Act provides practical rights, benefits, and protections for persons who choose to establish non-marital unions. As stated in the Act:
Civil union couples shall have all of the same benefits, protections and responsibilities under law, whether they derive from statute, administrative or court rule, public policy, common law or any other source of civil law, as are granted to spouses in a marriage. [N.J. Statutes 37:1-31(a)]
The Act also provides that civil union couples are entitled to the benefits and protections of “laws relating to insurance, health and pension benefits.” The Act prohibits an array of unlawful employment practices by employers who do not fully implement the Act.
What Does All of This Mean?
In New Jersey, the debate about same sex marriage is notabout benefits and rights. The Civil Union Act settled that issue once and for all. Same sex couples have every benefit and right without exception that our State grants to heterosexual married couples. Same sex civil unions may represent a new and a different type of institution, one in which government grants to same sex couples benefits and protections, but same sex unions are not marriage.
Persons of same-sex orientation have the right to live as they choose but they do not have the right to redefine marriage for everyone by altering the civil law.
What is the Catholic Church’s Teaching on Marriage?
The Catholic Church teaches today and has always and everywhere taught that marriage is the union of one man and one woman as husband and wife. This great truth about marriage is not an obscure doctrinal fine point but a fact of human nature, recognized from time immemorial by virtually every faith and culture.
The Church teaches that man and woman are equal. However, man and woman are different from each other but created for each other. This complementarity, including sexual difference, draws them together in a mutually loving union that always should be open to the procreation of children (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church nos. 1602-1605).
In the face of the attempts to establish same sex “marriage”, the Catholic Bishops of New Jersey have issued a comprehensive message, “The Call to Marriage is Woven Deeply into the Human Spirit.” The Bishops’ message calls upon all Catholics to:
· Protect and promote marriage.
· Hold firm to the Church’s teaching on marriage and the complementarity of the sexes.
· Support all family members, including those who choose to remain single.
· Help those entering marriage to prepare for the challenges, sacrifices and joys to come.
· Reach out with the special compassion of Christ to those married couples and families experiencing difficulties, anxiety, and illness.
Why should the Church care about the state’s definition of marriage?
Marriage as a union of man and woman existed long before any nation, religion, or law was established. Governments, therefore, have a duty to protect this permanent institution and to pass it on to future generations, rather than attempt to redefine it arbitrarily for transitory political or social reasons.
The Church asks Catholics to care about the government’s treatment of marriage because civil authorities are charged with protecting children and the common good, and marriage is indispensable to both purposes. As citizens, Catholics have the right and the responsibility to oppose laws and policies that unjustly target people as bigots or that subjects them to charges of unlawful discrimination simply because they believe and teach that marriage is the union of man and a woman.
Why must marriages be treated differently than other voluntary relationships?
No other voluntary relationship can be regarded as the equivalent of marriage, which is unique in its stability, the environment it provides for the development of families, and the protection it accords spouses and children. Marriage is not merely an article of the Catholic faith, but a foundational element of the common good.
Why should two individuals of the same sex be treated any differently than married couples who cannot conceive children?
Marriage benefits society by bringing men and women – the two complementary “halves” of the human race – together. Regardless of whether they can conceive children, a man and a woman united in marriage reinforce the importance of this ideal. By contrast, if the government insists that same-sex unions are “equal” to unions of husband and wife, the government will be teaching not only that mothers and fathers are no longer necessary for children, but also that uniting the sexes is no longer an important ideal.
Don’t single parents make a valuable contribution to family life?
If so, why should same-sex partners not be viewed the same way?
All children are gifts from God and deserve our care and protection. The stable, lifelong loving relationship of a mother and father, found only in marriage, provides the ideal conditions for raising and socializing children. Marriage represents the way we teach and reinforce this ideal.
Some children are raised in situations other than the traditional two-parent family, and responsible loving single parents and other family members make important and valuable contributions to the welfare of these children. But supporting single-parent families, as a just and compassionate society must do, is far different than deliberately creating motherless and fatherless families and holding them out to be the same as marriages.
But isn’t prohibiting same-sex “marriage” unjust discrimination?
No. Every person has inherent dignity because he or she is created in the image and likeness of God. God loves every person as a unique individual. Our homosexual brothers and sisters are beloved children of God. As a result, the Catholic Church affirms that they “must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in this regard should be avoided” [Catechism no. 2358].
The Church teaches that the fundamental human rights of homosexual persons must be defended, and that all of us must strive to eliminate any forms of injustice, oppression, or violence against homosexual persons. But it is not “unjust discrimination” to treat different things differently. Same-sex unions are not the same thing as the union of one man and one woman in marriage. One type of union may ever generate children, the other may never; one type of union respects and expresses the inherent complementarily of man and woman; the other does not.
LINKS OF INTEREST:
UNITED STATES CONFERENCE OF CATHOLIC BISHOPS:
http://www.foryourmarriage.org/
Diocesan Family Life Offices:
Newark
Trenton
Metuchen
Camden
Paterson
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Knights Killed in Iraq & Afganistan Eligible for Death Benefit 
