Re: homosexuality, and similar-sex marriages

Catholic New Times, April 24, 2005 by Joseph Polito

Your articulate letters demonstrate the complexity of the marriage debate.

The Law Commission Report on adult relationships, Beyond Conjugality, adds many elements, such as comments from people in committed polygamous relationships who feel like second-class citizens.

The report goes beyond relationships when it says that the spousal credit, "is over-inclusive. Over one-half of the spouses who receive the credit are not supporting children."

The report describes how The United Kingdom has abolished the spouse and common-law partner credit. The saved revenue was used to fund a new child tax credit.

When we examine our family and tax laws, it is clear that society has viewed marriage as both a relationship and a vocation to have and raise children. The entitlements and protections address the enormous personal and economic costs of raising children.

Marriage is an institution which is meant to support our basic reproductive pair-bonding nature, limits marriage to a couple, has subsidies, support and property provisions, and excludes close relatives.

The letters of Messrs. McKinnery and Wiseman (CNT March 20, 2005) view marriage only as a relationship. At the hearings on marriage, Nathalie DesRosiers, President of the Law Commission, shares this view. She said about the exclusion of polygamy from marriage, "there is no reason ... why it should be excluded."

Marriage needs to become more exclusive to be legal. We need to make it an institution exclusively for young people planning to have and raise children. Instinctively many people acknowledge this view, when they decide only to live together without having children.

Joseph Polito

Etobicoke, Ont.