Marriage is a covenant defined by God, not a contract defined by man and thus able to be regulated by man’s governments.
In Matthew chapter 19, Jesus stated it was God’s intention that only one man and one woman can be married. God defines other sexual relations including homosexual ones as immoral. People who practice them will not be granted eternal life. (Rev 22:15).
However, we have a secular government and a First Amendment. But this cuts both ways, a fact most forget.
Because too many government officials are now hostile to how God defines marriage, government is being used to force me to recognize and even enable “marriage” that God tells me is morally repulsive. Just as we have a separation of church and state, we must now have a separation of marriage and state. When marriage is a private matter, then anyone can enter into any manner of relationship they please, but they cannot use government to impose their definition on others.
MARRIAGE
As a natural institution, the lasting union of a man and a woman who agree to give and receive rights over each other for the performance of the act of generation and for the fostering of their mutual love.
The state of marriage implies four chief conditions: 1. there must be a union of opposite sexes; it is therefore opposed to all forms of unnatural, homosexual behavior; 2. it is a permanent union until the death of either spouse; 3. it is an exclusive union, so that extramarital acts are a violation of justice; and 4. its permanence and exclusiveness are guaranteed by contract; mere living together, without mutually binding themselves to do so, is concubinage and not marriage.
Christ elevated marriage to a sacrament of the New Law. Christian spouses signify and partake of the mystery of that unity and fruitful love which exists between Christ and his Church, helping each other attain to holiness in their married life and in the rearing and education of their children.
All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.