Same Sex Marriage

            The wedding announcement arrives in typically elegant fashion: decorative envelope wrapped around scalloped parchment paper artistically beckoning the presence of close friends and family to share in a most special day. As the invitation is removed from the envelope, the names of the to-be-wedded pair take the startled recipient by surprise: David Smith and James Walker, a homosexual couple, exchanging their vows of holy matrimony.
             Gone are the days of traditional values, of moral standards a person can be proud to call his own. In today's ever liberal society, homosexual relationships have been more and more a part of the comfortable about their sexual orientation. Yet the concept of two people of the same sex maintaining an intimate relationship is not the way coupling was intended, men and women create a pair, not men with men or women with women. It is simply an inappropriate arrangement, teetering heavily on the immoral side, as well as to indulge in a same sex marriage.
             While some religions may be more tolerant with regard to same sex marriages, the Catholic Church is not ashamed to state its opposing position on the subject. Perhaps no other entity is so damning when it comes to the treatment of homosexuals. "It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church's pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others, which endangers the most fundament al principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action, and in law" (Sullivan, 1994; 47).
             Yet the Church's attitude is well founded. Sex between two people is meant for procreation, it is no secret that homosexuals cannot conceive children. Therefore, it is merely physical gratification that dictates a same sex marriage. Those who have any understanding at all of the Catholic Church realize that their position is one built on the sanctity of traditional matrimony and traditional values, where a man and a woman join lives to create a family.