A leading priest has said that homosexual unions cannot be recognised within the Christian tradition.Fr Brendan Purcell, a philosophy lecturer and long time commentator on social and moral issues, told ciNews that there was no Scriptural basis for allowing such a move.
He was responding to the news that the Catholic bishops had reaffirmed that sexual differentiation is intrinsic to the sacrament of marriage in a statement this week.
Fr Purcell cited a recent report in the New York Times in which some homosexual men described their “marriages” as lacking the basic requirement of fidelity.
“The lack of commitment to sexual fidelity displayed in this situation illustrates that the call for gay marriages has everything to do with normalising the gay lifestyle,” he said.
Fr Purcell continued: “Both the Old and New Testament are very clear that the proper place for the expression of sexuality was within a committed heterosexual marriage.”
The Church's teaching is positive about sexuality, properly understood, he said. The emphasis in both the Gospels and in the Old Testament was on the faithful love between a husband and wife. Any other expression of sexuality reduced sex to a purely physical act, he said.
The Bishops' statement was prompted by comments by a Catholic theologian that the Catholic sacrament of marriage could apply to same-sex couples.
Margaret Farley, professor of moral theology at Yale Divinity School and a member of the Sisters of Mercy order, argued at a conference in Dublin last month that the Catholic Church should permit same-sex marriage.
In response, the Bishops said that "Christian tradition holds that sexual differentiation is intrinsic to our understanding of the sacrament of marriage".
The statement continued: "Marriage has a meaning that is not reducible to individuals' intentions and society's laws. Marriage is not perceived as just any kind of relationship, but as a quite specific kind of relationship, with certain core characteristics."
The statement continues: "It is oriented towards the sharing of their lives and the support they will give each other, and also towards the creation of new human beings as the fruit of their love.
"It is for the sake of these two objectives that the loving marital relationship between a woman and a man needs to be one that is faithful, exclusive and lasting."
This is in contrast to Prof Farley's comments at a conference organised by the Irish School of Ecumenics at Trinity College Dublin that the sacrament of marriage was easily applicable to same-sex marriages.
In an interview with The Irish Times, she said a committed couple had the right to a marital relationship.
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