What surprised me about the articles and letters about the Irish referendum on same sex marriage (The Tablet, 30 May) was the lack of comment about the possible underlying motive for many Catholics to vote Yes, ie. a swipe at the clerical authoritarianism from under which yoke they have been emerging.
Yes, rightly, there has been much re-thinking going on about homosexual relationships. Yes, rightly, there has been progress in a re-appraisal of what are the most important elements in all kinds of relationships. Yet, at the same time, there are those who are sounding warnings about the trend to devalue the importance and uniqueness of the traditional nuclear family which is necessary for the "common good" of humankind.
As a person who has been active in promoting reform of some of the institutional elements of the Catholic Church I have nevertheless not jumped on the bandwagon of those reformists who are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Such is the temptation to deny all authentic teaching of office-holders in the Church because of that clericalism and authoritarianism which, in this case, the Irish Catholics have experienced for many years.
Marriage, as Jesus points out in Matthew 19, is between a man and a woman, with the added inference that this is the creative intention of God (v.4-5). There was no need for the question of this uniqueness of marriage to be challenged in this way by those of the same sex wishing to express their loving relationships by a ritual and legal ceremony. It simply cannot be the same by its very nature, that is, not being between a man and woman with possibility of being father and mother to children in such a "family" relationship. This takes nothing away from a loving relationship between persons of the same sex, for that could be a different creative intention of God, but that difference needs to be emphasised in relation to the uniqueness of the traditional nuclear family.
Brian Pointer, Chichester, West Sussex
As I stood preparing to cast my vote in the Irish referendum I was bewildered, confused and conflicted. I'm a Catholic priest just a year or two off celebrating my Golden Jubilee. I also suspect that had I not been ordained a priest all those years ago, I myself would probably want to avail of what a Yes vote would mean for gay people in Ireland. Yet as I stood there I could not stop myself from putting an X against No! Over fifty plus years of believing myself to be "intrinsically disordered' and striving to live a celibate life had done the trick. My deepest feelings were overruled and my "informed conscience" prevailed.
Clearly the survival and well-being of our species depends upon the male female relationship, a relationship underpinned and made secure by the commitment of marriage.
Vatican II declared that procreation and bonding were both equally the purpose of sexual activity and neither can be excluded for a sexual act to be moral. Perhaps we could now go one step further and recognise that in reality for most couples sex is about bonding and only occasionally about procreation.
Having some sort of Platonist ideal of sex where the act is always open to the possibility of procreation just does not measure up to the reality of most Christian/Catholic people's lives. Facing this key issue would be most helpful not only when dealing with the issue of contraception but also the sexual expression of love between two people of the same gender in a gay marriage.
Name and address withheld
It seems to me that it's not such a "huge task" to find a language to express our many kinds of loving, partnering and parenting (The Tablet, Archbishop of Dublin, and Germaine Greer, 30 May). What's more difficult is to ensure our children benefit from both fatherly and motherly ways of upbringing. We can do this by embracing the "family" in its extended form - with uncles, aunts, godparents and friends. This is already done in many cultures and social situations (as it was in Jesus' time). Loving our children into society should be a corporate responsibility.
Marcus Robbins, Oxford
As your editorial suggests, one way to understand aspects of the Yes vote in Ireland is precisely through the influence of Catholic Social Teaching. It was instructive to observe how often people desperately tried to avoid a reductionist faith v secularism debate during the referendum campaign. For many Catholics, the stress on the dignity and rights of every human person, the imperative of living in the service of others, and the plea to nurture a civilisation of love, all lead to an obvious conclusion about the historic and current treatment of the LGBT community in Ireland (north and south). Does this generous and welcoming Irish embrace of inclusion really seem so very far away from Gospel values?
Colin Harvey, Belfast
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