God help us, ping!
Not what the Bible says.
“Within a very short time now, the Catholic Church will be the only place to receive a truly Christian wedding.”
Good article, but this statement just isn’t correct. The Orthodox (Eastern and Oriental), as well as conservative Protestant churches will not likely ever bow to the gay agenda and have “sacramental gay weddings” in church. I understand the author’s concern and it’s well-founded, however I think the conservative Christians need to come together on this point and fight a common evil.
Unbelievable.
“It is time now for the Catholic Church to withdraw completely from the civil side of marriage.”
That’s probably what is going to eventually end up happening. But it isn’t going to stop the state from punishing those faiths that are never going to buy into it.
Freegards, thanks for all the threads on FR
This would be a major retreat for the Church. As Catholics we believe it to be our obligation to inform the civil society in matters of public good. It is not enough to limit our opposition to practicing Catholics, just like we don't limit our opposition to abortion to just Catholics. Fully secular homosexual quasi-marriage is still a horrible idea that must be opposed on all levels.
Besides, it is not as easy as it sounds. The Church holds all apparent marriages to be valid till proven otherwise. For example, if a Jew marries a Muslim, and then both convert to Catholicism, their priest might recommend that they celebrate a sacramental marriage, but it will not be like they were not married before. If for some reason they do not repeat their vows in the Church, and instead at some point seek annulment, the Church will presume them a Jew and a Muslim to be validly married before God. In fact, it would be harder for them to obtain an annulment precisely because, as a Jew and a Muslim at the time their marriage was initiated, they were free to follow their own ceremony, and so nothing damaging to their marriage can be found in how it was solemnized.
That is a fanciful example to make a point. More commonly, two indifferent to religion people marry and divorce and then one of them or both become Catholic, and all of a sudden that frivolous marriage back in the day becomes a marriage not before justice of the peace but before God, and they need an annulment. That annulment will not be granted simply because it was secular, the Church must find a defect in the inception of it according to their religious affiliation, or lack of it, at the time.
So fast forward to the brave new world of secumarriage (whatever that thing is) unrelated to the Church marriage. If secumarriage is of the same sex, it is clearly not a marriage, end of story. But what of a man and a woman, both free to marry (not married before, neither a monk, a priest or a nun, etc.) intending to marry for life, in fidelity, desiring children, and getting secumarried? What is their marital status before God? Today, it is that they are married unless proven otherwise. Tomorrow -- we don't know. But we must know what the guiding principles will be. If one of them or both become Catholic, this is not an academic question.
I wonder how many of these countries (including USA) have a new definition of the Sacrament of "Holy Orders" somewhere in their playbook, waiting to be floated then dictatorially implemented...
Most errors usually come about by stressing one part of the Christian message to extremes, and failing to balance it against other commands. There are some Christians who are so keen to carry ou the clear and godly command to accept everyone and reject no-one that they are prepared to cave in on any belief in order to prove how inclusive they are. But the problem with that is that the world does not think better of us for giving way like that. It generates contempt, not respect. As the saying goes, if you don't stand for something, you'll stand for anything. And where does that lead to? Ultimately a faith without any works. And that is a faith that is dead.
I'm not a Catholic and I have problems with some aspects of Catholic theology, but I have to give them credit. They have stuck to their guns much better than the big protestant denominations, in spite of immense amounts of pressure and condemnation from 'progressive' experts and commentators.