Obviously I am not Catholic and not bound or required to understand the rules and obligations, but I cannot help but shake my head when I read things like this:
ROME (Reuters) – Pope Benedict, in his first clear pronouncement on gay marriages since his election, on Monday condemned same-sex unions as fake and expressions of “anarchic freedom” that threatened the future of the family.
The Pope, who was elected in April, also condemned divorce, artificial birth control, trial marriages and free-style unions, saying all of these practices were dangerous for the family.
“Today’s various forms of dissolution of marriage, free unions, trial marriages as well as the pseudo-matrimonies between people of the same sex are instead expressions of anarchic freedom which falsely tries to pass itself off as the true liberation of man,” he said.
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I would think he’d be against it since it’s often a polygamous match. Even in the instances where it isn’t, I’m not sure what the rules are regarding cohabitation in a Catholic marriage. (The article said that the people often don’t live together in these marriages.) If there isn’t much sex occuring in Misyar marriages, I don’t think that’s a problem, as long as the marriage was consumated at least once. (Catholics are only supposed to have sex to make babies. And there is no promise to either partner about how often sex will occur.) I’m also not sure how important marriage is to Catholics once the age of child rearing has passed. I think for Muslim women these marriages afford some, albeit potentially meager, benefits.
I love gay people and have no desire to prevent them from marrying. I don’t think God needs my help on this one. I think the he’s adressing behaviors CATHOLICS would engage in. And there are tons of gay Catholics, Catholics who live together prior to marriage, etc.
I wonder what he thinks of Islamic Misyar marriage. I think he is trying to focus on “Godless” hedonism, as opposed to the kind whose criticism would jeapordize Catholic-Islamic ties.
For what it’s worth, I think my Orthodox rabbi would have said exactly the same thing. (Not that you have any obligation to agree with him just because you are Jewish.)