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After
the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act,
an Italian cardinal said that recognizing gay unions as “marriages”
ignores nature and may yield effects that cannot be entirely
anticipated.
“The fundamental structures of our existence would be overturned, with
the destructive effects that we can imagine, but not entirely foresee,”
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general emeritus of the Diocese of Rome,
said in a June 28 interview with Italian daily Il Foglio.
“We think, in concrete terms, of what can be a family in which there is
no longer a father, a mother, and children who have a father and a
mother,” he added in the interview, which was noted by Vatican analyst
Sandro Magister of L'Espresso July 1.
Two days before the interview, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the
Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, and that the federal
government must recognize same-sex “marriages” if they are accepted by
individual states. This means that “married” gay couples are entitled to
the same federal benefits as married straight couples.
Cardinal Ruini said that same-sex “marriage” is an effect of a misunderstanding – even a rejection – of human nature.
In fact, reality is a given, which cannot be changed and is not a construction of society, he explained.
“One very important aspect of our being is that we are structured
according to the sexual difference, of man and woman…it is a primordial
and evident difference, which precedes our personal decisions, our
culture and the education we have received.”
This reality has led humanity “since its origin,” to understand marriage
“as a bond possible only between a man and a woman,” he said.
The basis for “gay marriage,” the cardinal explained, is the view that
sex is a choice of the individual, and not a given characteristic that
is received at conception.
“But,” he said, “this is an illusion, even if it is shared by many.”
“Our freedom, in fact, is rooted in the reality of our being, and when
it is violated it becomes destructive, of ourselves first of all.”
Cardinal Ruini emphasized that equality is a good which is to be valued, “understood as equal dignity among all human beings.”
However, when it is understood “as the negation of every difference and
therefore as the presumption to treat different situations in the same
way, equality is simply something that goes against reality,” he said.
While acknowledging that Western nations are rushing to accept and
promote “gay marriage,” he said that ultimately “the future belongs to
those who are able to recognize and accept the human being in his
authentic reality.”
“The illusions, instead, sooner or later collapse, often after having done great damage.”
Recognizing that governments cannot command or prohibit whom one loves,
the cardinal also said that governments “can and must…seek to regulate
in the way most useful and most in keeping with reality the behaviors
that are born from love but have a public significance.”
He rejected the idea of civil unions as a compromise between supporters
and opponents of same-sex “marriage,” saying society can in no way
healthfully “banish nature with a personal or collective decision of our
own.”
Civil unions would not “satisfy the demand for absolute freedom and
equality that is at the basis of the claim of homosexual marriage,” he
stated.
Furthermore, Cardinal Ruini suggested, civil unions are harmful to
societies because they would further dissolve the already damaged
institution of marriage, as well as useless because all of the rights
they would afford “can very well be protected…by recognizing them as
rights of persons, and not of couples.”
In light of the rush to accept gay marriage in the U.S. and Europe, the
Italian cardinal said the Church “cannot help” but uphold reality and
the nature of man.
On that basis, Catholics are called to witness to truth and live their faith in the public square.
He urged that Catholics “must become more aware of the cultural and social significance of their faith.”
“When this awareness becomes weak, the faith becomes insipid and has
little impact not only in the public sphere, but also in the capacity to
draw persons and lead them to Christ,” he reflected.
