Marriage in do minore

Replying to my letter on Sexual Complementarity, none of the correspondents addressed adequately the issues that were central to my writing.

Homosexual behaviour between two men or two women can never be compared to that between a man and a woman for the simple reason that there is no sexual complementarity between the two persons involved.

Moreover, no homosexual act can ever result in the conception of a child, thus excluding that most important component in matrimony which guarantees the transmission of life and the continuation of the human race.

Any attempt to call the relationship between two men or two women marriage or civil union - the latter being a sort of marriage in do minore - just does not hold ground.

Reference was also made to the fact that since the Bible, the Old Testament in this case, was written so long ago under different circumstances, its precepts do not mean much today.

This is incorrect because by around the year 1000 BC and the reign of David, followed by the splendid reign of his son Solomon, the Jews were nomadic no more and had already been settled for a long time in the land of Canaan.

They never repudiated the given law but held on to it through turmoil and persecution throughout the centuries. Theft, murder and perjury, to mention but a few are still regarded as wrong actions today not only by Jews but by all the civilized nations.

With regard to this, the Catechism of the Catholic Church has this to say: "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.

"They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved." (2357).

Christ himself made clear to his disciples his love and reverence for the law. "Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them." Matthew 5:17.

Finally, the Catholic Church does not exclude anyone from her motherly embrace but it is we who, by our actions choose to do so, much like the rich young man in the Gospel who turned sadly away from the Lord because he could not bring himself to change his lifestyle and follow in the master's footsteps.