Pope Francis same-sex ‘marriage’ in exhortation
Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia is a sprawling document that seeks to
address the wide variety of challenges facing the family today – from
widespread divorce, pornography, artificial reproductive technologies, gender
theory, cohabitation, internal family strife, and much more.
Much of the debate over the document will likely focus on Pope
Francis’ treatment
of the question of whether
the Church can admit divorced and remarried Catholics to the sacraments. The
furor over the so-called 'Kasper proposal' to loosen the Church's restrictions
had dominated the headlines and discussions during last year's Synod on the
Family. In today's exhortation, the pope stakes out a markedly more liberal position on the issue
than his precedessors. (Read about that here.)
However, on numerous other hot-button issues, the Pope upholds
the traditional teaching, including on abortion, euthanasia, gender theory, gay
‘marriage,’ and more. The Catholic lay group Voice of the Family has
pointed out that even on some of these issues his statements stray from
traditional formulations in troubling ways. (Read their analysis here.)
Nevertheless, the many liberals who would claim Pope Francis for their side in
the controversial moral battles of our day have to contend with the fact that
he is explicitly denouncing their views.
Here are some highlights of his statements on such issues.
Homosexuality and same-sex ‘marriage’
Hopes in some circles that the Pope would radically alter the
Church’s teachings on homosexuality have not been realized. The pope devotes
very little space at all to the issue. Much of what he does write amounts to a
relatively straight-forward, if not especially aggressive, re-affirmation of
Church teaching, although there is possibly the hint of a laxer approach to
civil unions than that taken by his precedessors.
The pope first addresses the issue in paragraph 52, writing: “We
need to acknowledge the great variety of family situations that can offer a
certain stability, but de facto or same-sex unions, for example, may not simply
be equated with marriage. No union that is temporary or closed to the
transmission of life can ensure the future of society.”
Voice of the Family today expressed concerns about the
implication that same-sex civil unions could be included among the "great
variety of family situations" and at the positive reference to the
"stability" that such unions can offer.
However they also praised the clear affirmation of Church
teaching in paragraph 251, which states: "There are absolutely no grounds
for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely
analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family.”
Te pope adds: “It is unacceptable ‘that local Churches should be
subjected to pressure in this matter and that international bodies should make
financial aid to poor countries dependent on the introduction of laws to
establish ‘marriage’ between persons of the same sex’.”
In paragraph 250, the pope quotes the Catechism of the Catholic
Church that “every sign of unjust discrimination” based upon sexual orientation
is to “be carefully avoided, particularly any form of aggression and violence.”
Those with a homosexual orientation, he says, “can receive the
assistance they need to understand and fully carry out God’s will in their
lives.”
At the same time, the Pope notably avoids using any of the
stronger language used in the Catechism or other Church documents in reference
to homosexuality – particularly the “intrinsically disordered” language that
was subject to scrutiny by some Synod fathers at last fall’s Synod on the
Family.
Gender theory
Throughout his pontificate the Pope has repeatedly and forcefully
condemned so-called “gender ideology” – the radical theory that dismisses
intrinsic differences between men and women, and makes gender a fluid reality,
subject even to personal choice.
The Pope renews his criticism of gender theory in today's
exhortation.
“Yet another challenge is posed by the various forms of an
ideology of gender that ‘denies the difference and reciprocity in nature of a
man and a woman and envisages a society without sexual differences, thereby
eliminating the anthropological basis of the family,’” he writes. “This
ideology leads to educational programmes and legislative enactments that
promote a personal identity and emotional intimacy radically separated from the
biological difference between male and female. Consequently, human identity
becomes the choice of the individual, one which can also change over time.”
“It is a source of concern that some ideologies of this sort,
which seek to respond to what are at times understandable aspirations, manage
to assert themselves as absolute and unquestionable, even dictating how
children should be raised. It needs to be emphasized that “biological sex and
the socio-cultural role of sex (gender) can be distinguished but not
separated”.
