We just heard about the Spirit of truth:
“Jesus said to his disciples:
“When the Advocate comes 
whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth 
that proceeds from the Father,”

The Spirit of truth! The Holy Spirit!

I would like to discuss 
Political correctness 
vs 
Christian correctness - 

that is the error 
vs the. truth  
as related to marriage 

Another way to think of it is 
the tension between the
Holy Spirit who inspires the Church in teaching the truth 
vs 
the  
spirit of political correctness that tries to  make a wrong into a right.

St Paul listed many bad behaviors and good behaviors quite firmly:

“Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury,
acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, 
occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.

I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, 
self-control.”

The sacrament of Marriage  is one of the two sacraments of service, the other of which is Holy Orders. 
Those that live in these vocational sacraments
Should exhibit in some way the 
“fruit of the Spirit” … Which St Paul describes as:
“love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”     -To others

I am priveledged to have received both sacraments of service since I have been married for over 40 years and will shortly be celebrating the 5th anniversary of my ordination as a deacon.

 But marriage is my first and longest running sacrament of service

The beauty and power for good of the sacrament of Marriage is awesome if you reflect on it.

Lets listen to some beautiful words from the CCC on marriage:

“1601 “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, 
is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses 
and the procreation and education of offspring; 
this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”

1604 …
Since God created him man and woman, 
their mutual love becomes 
an image of the absolute and unfailing love with 
which God loves man. 

It is good, very good, in the Creator’s eyes. 

And this love which God blesses is intended to be fruitful …

1605 Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another:
 ”It is not good that the man should be alone.”

The woman,
 ”flesh of his flesh,” his equal, 

his nearest in all things,

 is given to him by God as a “helpmate”; 

she thus represents God 
from whom comes our help.

“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.”"

What beautiful words on marriage from our catechism!

Marriage is a blessed state of life where one man and one woman give  love to each other.  
They were made for each other.
They complement each other
- they become one flesh!  

They also cooperate with God’s power 
in the procreation of children!

In contrast, we have a politically correct 
but very insidious  wrong idea spreading and promoted around the nation by its advocates as some kind of equal right 
that is now  even endorsed by the president of the US of America  
whom I quote:

“”It is important for me personally to go ahead and affirm that same-sex couples should be able to get married.” ”
The president gave this statement on May 9, 2012.

Sadly this sets an extremely bad example to our citizens and the world and to children. 

It is Not the truth!
It is a big error!

It is  opposed to what marriage really is 
which is a covenant between one man and one woman

Taking an abnormal relationship and calling it marriage is a serious offense against the truth of what marriage really is!

As Saint Paul told the Galatians:

“Brothers and sisters, live by the Spirit
and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh has desires against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh;
these are opposed to each other,
so that you may not do what you want.”

I think Saint Paul would have told the president:
 
I don’t care what you want 
- “you may not do what you want”

The truth is the truth, period!!!!

Our previous bishop who is our Archbishop Kurtz of Louisville  whose province covers Tennessee and Kentucky was quoted in 2010 as saying:

“Preserving marriage between one man and one woman is a matter of justice; 
indeed it is one of the premier social justice issues of our time. 
It does not deny but rather supports basic human rights—especially the rights of children,” Said the archbishop 

Protecting military chaplains is related to this also:
Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Catholic military archdiocese wants a law to protect chaplains from witnessing gay marriage, 
however the White House is against such protection.

Now all this does not mean that we should hate the sinner:
We are to hate the sin 
but love the sinner 
Always we are to love as Christians 

We shouldn’t  even judge sin
We’re not qualified

An Objective wrong may be obvious as in the absurdity of 
a man marrying a man 
or a woman marrying a woman 

But God is the ultimate judge of sin,
 since He knows the heart and mind of the wrong doer and knows  the wrong doer’s knowledge and intent.

That is,  
does the person know what they are doing is a wrong and do they intend to do it?

But we should still  know wrong when we see it 
even when it’s clothed with falsely contrived mantles of kindness , freedom, equality and political correctness in an attempt to make what is wrong right.

We should pray to the Holy Spirit for those who live in inappropriate relationships or promote such relationships 
that the Holy Spirt help them realize that what they do is against the truth and so against God!

And then that the Holy Spirit also help them live good and holy lives.

As Christians we should all exhibit in some way:
the 
“fruit of the Spirit” … Which St Paul describes as:
“love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

But still firmly oppose the institution of error as a good when we see it
happening.

As we prepare to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist where bread and wine become the body, blood, soul and divinity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 
through the power of the Holy Spirit;

Let us give thanks for the coming of the Holy Spirit,
 ”the Spirit of truth”,  
upon the Church which we celebrate today!  

There is a contradiction within liberalism in its insistence upon ‘gay marriage’.

If individual liberty is so important to liberals, if they see the objection to ‘gay marriage’ as an affront to individual rights, if the term ‘marriage’ and the institution of marriage are mere conventions – man made and not based in the nature of life, conceived religiously or not – then why don’t they make up their own new word for ‘gay marriage’?: Civil union? Melded? Combined? Amalgamated? Why not?
Why this insistence on using the word ‘marriage’?


They want what marriage means: unity of opposites, but then have to alter it’s universal meaning – which is an affront on universality as such.

Liberals want to say the term marriage can mean what we say it means, which is to say that its meaning is man-created, and yet they also recognize, and want to participate in, a unified world, a totality where words and concepts are universal, that is, that they mean the same thing to everyone, in this case that marriage means unity – but now irrespective of what or who is unified.

We live in two domains simultaneously, this insistence on ‘gay marriage’ confuses these domains: we experience ourselves as separate beings in the world, and we are also conscious participants in ‘a world’ and are oriented by forms that are common or universal. Rejection of gay marriage may infringe on your freedom to participate in what is common or universal but this infringement is only infringement because you want to define your freedom as entailing the right to define the universal from the particular, i.e. individual, level. To define the universal from the particular level reduces the universal, there is no way around this. To claim ‘others’ are ‘oppressing’ you and ‘discriminating’ against you when they reject this claim of sovereignty of the individual, and of your ‘rights’ to define the universal as you see fit, is to reject the meaning of the universal as defining ‘the common world’, i.e. what we share in common as conscious beings.

The Lord HAS spoken on theses issues. Unless we are prepared to deny that Sacred Scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit a bit of humility would be in order.

Jesus quoted the Old Testament over and over in showing how He was the fulfillment of everything written in the Law and the Prophets. It is from Genesis itself that he said “Have you not read that in the beginning he made them male and female, therefore a man will leave mother and father and cleave to his wife.”

As a practicing Catholic I stand with the bishops and the Church. We cannot separate our care for the poor from being faithful to the Lord’s teachings.

Our problem is that we no longer want to hear His Word.

There are many countries that do not issue marriage licenses. In fact, in the USA it was not common for the govt or the church to issue a marriage license until the end of the civil war…a mere couple of hundred years ago, not thousands. The reason for starting this practice of issuing a marriage license was to insure that whites did not marry “negros”. An idea today that I am sure most people reading this would think is repugnant now. See already how marriage has evolved? Was the catholic church for or against such marriage prohibitions back then? Has it always been the opinion of the catholic church to allow interracial marriages? Or has the teachings changed over time? In fact you can go back a mere 6 months ago to a baptist church in Kentucky that refused membership to thier church to an interracial couple because of their interracial status. After denying the couple membership to the church and public outcry they did eventually vote to reverse this bizarre post-civil war policy.

Marriage licenses as issued by a government entity provides for civil benefits and responsibilities. It really has nothing to do with the church. However, if the catholic church wishes to maintain ownership of the title of marriage, then all current marriages should be called civil unions in the eyes of the government and marriages in the eyes of the church. In the USA we have a very strong and protected by an ammendment to the constitution a belief of equal and fair treatment under the law.

The idea or belief that marriage is and ALWAYS has been the same and that is what the church teaches is really not telling the truth.

I think you should also stress that Christian marriage is permanent and faithful.

This is a matter of civil law, so the church needn’t change practices.

The church should stop serving as officiants of civil marriages. Only allow Catholic priests and deacons to serve as sacramental witnesses.

“ The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which I approved … and the publication of which I today order by virtue of my Apostolic Authority, is a statement of the Church’s faith and of catholic doctrine, attested to or illumined by Sacred Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the Church’s Magisterium. I declare it to be a sure norm for teaching the faith and thus a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion. “ – Pope John Paul II. (pg 5)

“….the Catechism has raised throughout the world, even among non-Christians, and confirms its purpose of being presented as a full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine, enabling everyone to know what the Church professes, celebrates, lives, and prays in her daily life.” – Pope John Paul II (pg xiv)

All Catholics over age 16 must read the CCC, and then they would not question the remarks of Cardinal Dolan which are 100% in accord with the teaching of the Church on this topic.
I don’t know why all US Bishops do not openly and actively promote the reading of the CCC from the pulpit and all Diocese web sites.

When Bishops do not publically handle the mortal sin of public SCANDAL with politicians who profess to be Catholic, this CONFUSES the faithful as well as those who might consider becoming Catholic, and others.
Heretical and/or Schismatic Catholic politicians should be called exactly what they are – HERETICS and/or SCHISMATICS, and they should not be permitted to receive Holy Communion in accord with Canon 915.
See CCC: #2089 for definition of HERESY and SCHISM.