Times Blog: In defence of marriage

http://www.timesofmalta.com/blogs/view/20091008/fr-joe-borg/in-defence-of-marriage
Thursday, 8th October 2009 by Fr Joe Borg

[Excerpt of the article.]

As I will write in my regular column in The Sunday Times (next Sunday 11/10/09) I cannot comment on the proceedings of the Doha conference held this week in Malta. I had to decline the invitation as this was extended to me on condition that I attend all sessions, a commitment which I could not make.

In The Sunday Times, I will be commenting on a number of aspects of the speech delivered by President George Abela. In this blog I will comment on other aspects of that speech and other contributions that I did not include in my column in The Sunday Times.

Marriage: only between a man and a woman

The President in his speech made use of the definition of family used in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights: "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society." Dr Abela says that "here, the family is clearly understood as being composed of two married parents, a male and a female, together with their offspring." And when later he uses a definition of marriage he adds that "So marriage does not mean relationships which involve two men or two women or a variety of other possibilities."

The President does not include the possibility of gay marriage among the family related issues that he thinks have become a political priority. Good for him since marriage can only exist between a man and a woman. The natural structure of human sexuality makes man and woman complementary partners for expressing conjugal love and for transmitting human life.

This unique complementarity makes possible the conjugal bond that is the core of marriage. The permanent and exclusive commitment of marriage is the necessary context for the expression of sexual love both to serve the transmission of human life and to build up the bond between husband and wife.

As the United States bishops said in one of their statements "same-sex union contradicts the nature and purposes of marriage. It is not based on the natural complementarily of male and female. It cannot cooperate with God to create new life; and the natural purpose of sexual union cannot be achieved by a same-sex union. Because persons in a same-sex union cannot enter into a true conjugal union, it is wrong to equate their relationship to a marriage."

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[Click on the hyperlink above to view the entire article and comments on the Times' website.]