...here, of R.R. Reno's stupid suggestion at First Things that Christian ministers "withdraw from acting as agents in state-sanctioned marriage," thus severing the civil contract from the sacrament.
[Update]: In the Salt Lake Tribune, a Presbyterian pastor expresses his disdain for the marriage pledge, but for different reasons than my own. His article is full of irrelevancies, non sequiturs, and selective biblical references ("...he [Jesus] had little to say about marriage and nothing at all to say about sexual orientation"]. I don't know to what branch of Presbyterianism the author belongs, but I was wondering whether it's a denomination in decline, or on the incre
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Let no one, then, be deceived by the distinction which some civil jurists have so strongly insisted upon – the distinction, namely, by virtue of which they sever the matrimonial contract from the sacrament, with intent to hand over the contract to the power and will of the rulers of the State, while reserving questions concerning the sacrament to the Church. A distinction, or rather severance, of this kind cannot be approved; for certain it is that in Christian marriage the contract is inseparable from the sacrament, and that, for this reason, the contract cannot be true and legitimate without being a sacrament as well. For Christ our Lord added to marriage the dignity of a sacrament; but marriage is the contract itself, whenever that contract is lawfully concluded. – Pope Leo XIII, Arcanum divinae sapentiae
Submitted on 2014/11/26 at 2:44 am
I gave him the link to this in comments. He may have already been aware of it, but I am not sure. Reference to it would have bolstered his case greatly. Anyway, Leo’s remarks ought to close the question for any Catholic, though many will still find a way to dance around it, the times being what they are.
It appears that the contract (the promise made between man and woman) is the sacrament. As the only true form of marriage – built into the order of nature by God Himself – the state (whether it chooses to or not) has an obligation to recognize it, and, in like manner, no Christian minister may rend asunder what God has joined together. At least, that’s where I stand at the moment, barring correction.
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