What is marriage anyway? How would one define it?
Marriage: A political football used by a degenerate society to undermine traditional morality.
At this point, I think it is a fair definition.
Here in England, as in America, those who are hanging on to shifting rocks on the eroding face of the institution of marriage are trying to figure out how to survive in the emerging political and legal wasteland. As Fr. Tim Finigan points out, the Church has always maintained the right, independent of the State, to regulate marriage. It was the Protestants who argued that the State should regulate marriage.
The problem is both the Church and the State have had a vested interest in marriage for the same reason: there are men and women and when they come together as a couple they create families. The stable marriage (family), legally and publicly recognized, both by the Church and the State, is good for everyone, especially children. The Church offers the further good of the sacramental bond, which in former days the State valued as well.
In other words, marriage is neither created by the Church, nor the State. Marriage is a given, and is so whether one believes in God or not. Marriage exists because man is male and female. Period. Its value is so fundamental that the Church and the State cannot avoid getting involved. The Church, however, is involved by a direct mandate from Christ.
This is why the very fact that we have to argue about a definition of marriage—that it is even open for discussion—is an indication of how far the institution of marriage, through the break up of the family and the horrors of the anti-life movement, has eroded.
But as we navigate our way through the new legal landscape of same-sex marriage, let us not forget that the very powerful, wealthy and activist lobby behind SSM is not really interested in the institution of marriage (whose definition is not really all that important to them anyway). They would probably be just as happy if no one had it as everyone had it. Think of the melodramatic celebrities who have vowed to cohabitate without the benefit of a civil ceremony until every gay person can marry someone of the same-sex. Yes, they want the legal benefits. But they want society to condone homosexual behavior even more.
The real issue here is the opposition that those who believe in an objective moral law pose to those who justify immoral behavior. We all know this. Everyone on both sides of the issue know this. So the advocates of SSM go on pretending that they care about the institution of marriage and the opponents of SSM go on trying to reason with those who have abandoned moral reasoning.
I believe that it is St. Thomas Aquinas who said that sins against chastity are particularly capable of dulling the intellect. Well, that’s the problem, isn’t it? But you can’t say that in congress or parliament, of course, or in a “reasoned argument” about SSM.
We are so far down the trajectory of moral erosion that only a miracle of grace can save us. Relativism is a fatal disease. Once we begin to question fundamental principles, we find ourselves in a sink hole with no way out. This is not to say that we should give up. But it does suggest that what both moral conversion and politics have in common will be the key: they are both a matter of persuasion. So what can we do when we can’t reason with the opposition?
The person of Christ, His presence and His healing grace will always be the measure of our success. At the heart of every sin is an emptiness and a deception. Somehow, someway we have to be instruments of Christ to fill the void with what is real. Those who live with the affliction of a deep-seated attraction to sin (all of us) need to find hope in those who follow Christ. We need to be real. And while we must be morally intransigent, we also need to be personally humble and prepared for persecution.
Mary Victrix 
We all know Satan is destroying the sanctity of marriage because it represents the Holy Trinity.
http://www.cfpeople.org/SeminarianWritings/Sem013.html
Thank you for this excellent article. Persecution of the Church is coming from many directions and will continue, but I firmly believe that the worst persecution will come from militant homosexuals and their war against marriage and the family. We need to pray always for strength and help to strengthen one another to stand strong against this attack of the devil.
Dear Friars and dear brothers and sisters in Christ, did you all know what happenned in Brazil some days ago? It was really scaring show. Some people are out of their mind.
Will legal same-sex marriage result in religious persecution?
[An excerpt]
Last week, members of the Catholic Plinio Correa de Olivera Institute gathered in the Brazilian city of Curitiba to protest abortion and the homosexual ideology and stand in support of the traditional family. Homosexuality has been legal in Brazil since 1830 and enjoys widespread acceptance in that country.
However, the Catholic demonstrators, who marched peacefully and carried signs, were not greeted with tolerance and acceptance. In fact, an angry mob soon gathered around them and began yelling threats and making obscene gestures. The Catholics were spat upon and one of them had an object thrown at his head which drew blood. As he held up his bloodied hand to show the camera, the crowd cheered. These incidents were caught on camera by the Institute and by an onlooker sympathetic to the unruly mob.
http://lastdayswatchman.blogspot.com.br/2013/01/will-legal-same-sex-marriage-result-in.html
Alex,
I think everyone who visits Father Angelo’s blog understands how depraved, and anti-religious, the world has become over the years. And, yes, it seems almost hopeless at times, especially after reading articles such as the one you posted. We as Catholics are obliged to spread the ‘Good News’ to others, not the bad news. Could you not be more optimistic in your comments? Negativity tends to pollute hope for the future. Negativity is one of Satan’s tools to get our minds, and hearts, off Divine Mercy. Fear and negativity walk hand in hand…they both reduce the capacity to love.
I often think our world will have to become very ‘black’ before we see God’s light. For example, if you have a candle burning in a dimly lit room you barely see the candle’s light. Turn off the light in the room and the candle becomes much brighter! God is always with us.
Our Good God could change the world as we know it by simply willing it. It is in His power, and only His power. He doesn’t need us for anything. But He does desire that we choose to cooperate in the redemption of souls by our prayers and sacrifices (ie. Fatima message, for one). Throughout the bible we read the words, “Be not afraid”. Those words are also the signature of the late Holy Father, Blessed Pope John Paul II. Be courageous for the salvation of souls!
Alex, pray for souls because that is God’s Will. Pray for the country you live in, like St Faustina was known to do for Poland. Pray for your own soul to be holy, because in the end that it what you (we all) were put here on earth to do.
~a daughter of Mary
O Marie, thank you so much for your enlightening words! Actually everthing that you have said to me is all that I have trie to do. Perhaps it could not seem but indeed is so. By other hand, I think too we musn’t deny the obvious things. We don’t have to sugar-coat the things. But I understand what you say. Let give you a personal exemple. I have a neighbor. She is an elder lady. She is single and very susceptible. She gets impressed with all kind of prophecies about the end of the word. Some time ago, I said with all charity of the word to her that she shoud stop to think about that prophecies and thinking of cool things or something that makes her feeling calm. In other words, I said the same things you said to me. But here in Fr. Angelo’s blog I think I can speak of bad things without scaring the readers. I find.