Time for Church and State to recognize same-sex union

I have written about same-sex union before. Now the issue has become current again, after the US Supreme Court declared same-sex marriage as a right guaranteed by the US constitution.

Well, actually this is nothing new. It has been normal in many European countries for a long time already. But there is a need to clarify some things.

Firstly, don’t call a same-sex union marriage or gay marriage. A marriage is a union between a man and a woman and its purpose is procreation, whether the spouses beget children or not. So, a same-sex marriage or a gay marriage is a contradictio in terminis—that is, a contradiction in itself because two men or two women together cannot procreate although they can live together in a union of love.

And yes, they have the right to live together as a couple and this should be recognized by the State and by the Church. What they do together when they are in bed is nobody’s business, like it is nobody’s business what a married couple do together when they are in bed.

The official teaching of the Catholic Church regarding homosexuality has always been that this is an objective disorder. How can the Church say this? Does God create disorders? When a man or a woman feels attracted to the same sex, this should be considered normal and natural. Some people are indeed born with that inclination. The Church is really inconsistent and dishonest when it teaches that such attraction is a disorder. If the Church looks at its own bishops and priests, it would have to admit that many of them are gay. The signs are all over. Do these priests and bishops live with a disorder? But there is nothing wrong with being gay. Many of our artists and musicians are gay, they are very creative people.

The problem is the hierarchy in the Church has become male-dominated, it even has a bias against women in the Church.

Personally, I believe that many men are called to become priests but not to be celibate. That again is a special vocation—to become a religious and take the vow of chastity and remain a celibate.

St. Paul says: “Qui potest capere capiat,” he who can do that let him do it.

I believe that the rule of compulsory celibacy for priests should be lifted. This has been done in the Anglican Church and in the Protestant churches. They have married priests and even married bishops. Why not the Catholic Church?

Again I say, our clergy has become male-dominated and that is why they often show a bias against gays. I have observed also that many Filipino men are feminine, more than I have observed in other countries. Again, there is nothing wrong with that. I think, it is high time that the Church and the State recognized that these same-sex unions are normal, and that these people have the right to live together as a couple; and that they can even adopt a child who is an orphan and has no father and mother. Thus, they can live together as a family and the Church can give them its blessing. Not necessarily the blessing of the sacrament of matrimony. But then they are entitled also to enjoy the same benefits as married couples.

—ARNOLD VAN VUGT, O.Carm. associate, Cagayan de Oro City