The centrality of marriage: homosexuality and the Roman Catholic argument - Homosexuality: Some Elements for an Ecumenical Discussion

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 1998 by James P. Hanigan

(18) Mackin, Marriage in the Catholic Church, op. cir., pp.127-29.

(19) In practice this means that human beings are not free to define marriage in any way they wish. It is not an arbitrary social construction.

(20) Canon 1058 of the new Code of Canon Law reads: "All persons who are not prohibited by law can contract marriage." For an explanation of the canon see Coriden et al., The Code of Canon Law, p.743.

(21) Mackin, Marriage in the Catholic Church, pp.168-72.

(22) Mackin, The Marital Sacrament, pp.5-7.

(23) Heinz-J. Vogels, Celibacy -- Gift or Law? A Critical Investigation, Kansas City, Sheed & Ward, 1993.

(24) The degree to which this is still true in the Roman Catholic tradition is clearly reflected in Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter, Mulieris Dignitatem (On the Dignity and Vocation of Women), Origins, 18, 17, 6 October 1988. See also Lisa Sowle Cahill, "Accent on the Masculine", in John Wilkins, ed., Considering Veritatis Splendor, Cleveland, Pilgrim, 1994, pp.53-60.

(25) Karl Rahner, "The Theological Concept of Concupisentia". Theological Investigations I: God, Christ, Mar and Grace, trans. Cornelius Ernst, Baltimore, Helicon, 1961, pp.347-82.

(26) The principle of subsidiarity was formally articulated only in 1931 by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter Quadragesimo Anno. But the idea behind the articulation was much older. For the principle and my brief commentary on it see James P. Hanigan, As I Have Loved You: The Challenge of Christian Ethics, New York/Mahwah, Paulist, 1986, pp.82-83.

(27) To this day Catholic teaching insists on the rights of the family to be the primary educators of children, of the spouses to be the judge of whether or not to bring children into the world, and so forth. The whole issue of school choice in the United States and Catholic insistence on the government's obligation to support parental choice with tax dollars is based on this teaching See Dignitatis Humanae, 5, in Abbott, The Documents of Vatican II, p.683.

(28) Mackin, Divorce and Remarriage, p.379, points out that Martin Luther, after denying the church's authority over marriage, unwittingly entrusted the exegesis of the scriptural texts on divorce and remarriage to the authority of the state.

(29) John F. Tuohey, "The Principle of Toleration and the Civil Rights of Gas and Lesbian Persons", The New Theology Review, 7, 3, Aug. 1994, pp.38-40.

(30) Ibid., p.39.

(31) Noonan, Contraception, pp.387-533; Hanigan. What Are They Saying About Sexual Morality?, New York, Ramsey, Paulist, 1982, pp.7-24.

(32) Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "Declaration on Certain Questions Concerning Sexual Ethics", 8, in Anthony Kosnik, et al., Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought, New York/Paramus, Paulist, 1977, pp.304-305: and "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons", 3, 11, Origins, 16, 22, 13 Nov. 1986, pp.379, 381.

(33) Robert Nugent. "The Civil Rights of Homosexual People: Vatican Perspectives", New Theology Review, 7, 4, Nov. 1994, pp.74-75, n. 8, points out that most mainline Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic Church, have accepted as a working hypothesis an essentialist understanding of sexual orientation as opposed to a social constructionist understanding. He refers the reader to E. Stein, ed., Forms of Desire: Sexual Orientation and the Social Constructionist Controversy, New York/London, Garland, 1990.