Legalize Same-Sex Marriage for the Good of Catholic Families?
Paul J. Griffiths, chair in Catholic Studies at the University of Illinois, argues in October's "Commonweal" that not only should faithful Catholics be able to support the concept of same-sex marriage, despite the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith's pronouncement that "all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions," but that support of same sex unions could benefit what he believes is the Church's correct teaching on marriage.
He writes: "Catholics may support the legalization of same-sex marriages, together with the progressive disentanglement of sacramental marriage from state-sponsored contractual marriage. It is likely that such support, together with the argument and clarification that would accompany it, would clarify Catholic teaching about marriage, help Catholics to live in accord with it, make it more attractive to non-Catholics, and so, in the end, conform the body politic more closely to Christ by making the church more seductively beautiful."
Interesting ...
And here's the rebuttal...
From Margaret O’Brien Steinfels, former editor of Commonweal. Eying Griffiths' strategy, to "make the Catholic idea of marriage more appealing to Catholics and perhaps attractive and inspiring to others as well," she wonders, "isn’t this just the sort of fault he finds in the CDF document—a 'lack of modesty about its own predictive powers'?"
Interesting...