University of Colorado Catholics to host debate on same-sex ‘marriage’

Jan 21, 2010 / 02:55 am

The Catholic campus ministry at the University of Colorado at Boulder will host a debate next Monday on whether the government should recognize same-sex “marriage.” The speakers will be Maggie Gallagher and Jonathan Rauch.

Gallagher, a political and social commentator, has written three books on marriage. She is the president of the National Organization for Marriage, which has led several political battles to preserve or restore the definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“Unions of husband and wife really are unique and deserve their unique status in law, culture and society. These are the only kind of sexual union that can make new life and connect those children in love to their mother and father,” Gallagher has stated, according to a press release from the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center.

“Gay marriage is not about what two people do in private, it is about what government is going to say and do in public. Same-sex unions are not marriages. Treating them as marriages, and particularly misusing government to require others in the society to do so, is profoundly unjust."

Jonathan Rauch, a senior writer for National Journal magazine and a contributing editor of The Atlantic, has authored several books on public policy, culture and economics.

“For the American family and the beleaguered institution of marriage, same-sex marriage is part of the solution,” he said. “When gay couples settle down, form family ties, and make the noblest commitment that most people ever make, it's a win-win--good for them and good for society. I see my job as persuading conservatives to understand that their own case for the social benefits of marriage doesn't suddenly become false when you apply it to gays."

Fr. Kevin Augustyn, the director of campus ministry at the St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Center, explained the motives for organizing the debate. He said the Catholic Church has a “long history” of public debate on important ideas and issues.

“Given the growing national interest in the same-sex marriage debate, the Catholic Center has decided to provide a forum to openly discuss the merits of both sides of this issue, on the campus of Colorado’s flagship university,” he continued.

“In the tradition of the Catholic Center’s patron saint, St. Thomas Aquinas, who intelligently and fervently engaged the ideas and controversies of his day and age with grace, we hope to provide a stimulating intellectual discussion on the same-sex marriage debate,” Fr. Augustyn said.

The debate will take place on Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. at the Cristol Chemistry building on the campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

More information is available at the Catholic Center website at http://thomascenter.org/AquinasInstitute/MarriageDebate.html.