The problem this explanation has to solve is if the procreation is primary and the inability to procreate an obstacle to marriage, why does the Church celebrate the marriage of seniors.? My mother in law passed on at 66 in 1990. My father in law remarried in 93 at the age of 68. His partner was 57. The marriage was at a nuptial Mass in a church in the Diocese of Brooklyn. Now when I was in grade school studying the Baltimore Catechism I learned that the inability to reproduce was an impediment not an obstacle to marriage. An impediment could be overcome with Church approval. If this entry is the Church’s legal response to refusing to recognize same sex marriage they will have a problem
I guess they encourage marriage among the elderly so as to keep the old geezers from shacking up.
As they do down here in FL in The Villages.
Huge STD problem with the elderly in the Villages.
And I don't mean Doctorate of Sacred Theology.
You could go so far as to call them The Village People.
Ever hear of Abraham and Sarah? Zachariah and Elizabeth?
Matrimony is a sacrament of the Church like baptism or the Holy Eucharist. For Catholics marriage is not a mere contract but a means of grace. Its ministers are the man and wife. The priest is the official representative of the Church at this public ceremony.
Your mother at 66 was past menopause, thus the ‘impediment’ would be natural. She and her new husband should have been able to have natural carnal relations, just would, most likely, not result in children. As opposed to two men having ‘carnal relations’ that are impossible to create off-spring.
Let's take this analogy.
Imagine a senior citizens baseball team that shows up to play the St. Louis Cardinals. They have absolutely no chance of achieving the proper end of baseball (gaining more runs than the other team), but so long as they play according to the rules, their play is still ordered to its proper end.
But in the case of SSM, the play itself is changed. It would be like 2 teams showing up at the game without bats, wanting to play with their backs to each other so that even if they have the "intent" of winning a baseball game, what they are doing can't possibly be ordered to that end because they are, quite simply, no longer playing baseball.
So some married couples (the elderly, post-menopausal women, women post-hysterectomy, etc etc etc) may have sexual relations that are infertile, but their acts will always still be ordered towards life. While they have zero chance of conceiving, their marital embrace is still ordered towards the proper end of marriage: procreation and union.
You are looking at things backwards. The primary purpose of marriage is to accommodate the children who are normally the “fruit” of the sexual union. Only a man and a woman can produce children. This is why the state becomes involved because of its future citizens. It has no interest in “Love”. An affectionate relationship between two men or two women is called a friendship. If a same-sex couple adopts a child, this is really a joint-guardianship. Whether or not they have sex is now immaterial to their relationship with the child.