Marriage is defendable on human reason alone, says bishop

Madison, Wis., Oct 30, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The definition of marriage should not be altered as it is defined by natural law, which is based on human reason, said Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison in an open letter to the people of Wisconsin.

“These are not tenets of our ‘faith’ which we are defending,” he said, adding to the defense of marriage, the protection of all human life from conception to natural death, and the abolition of the death penalty. “They are universal truths, based on reason alone.

“They are based on the fact that every human person has an unsurpassed dignity; upon the fact that every human being is sacred from the moment from conception to natural death,” he continued. “Otherwise nothing else we do to care for other human beings makes any sense.  This is a truth of reason; it is true for every human being.”

The bishop explained that some things are objectively true and intrinsically good based on reason.  “When we recognize the objective truth, we need to reconcile ourselves to that truth, never the other way around – this is the natural law,” he stated.

“The truth that marriage is one man, one woman, one lifetime, with openness to children is inscribed in the human mind-heart which yearns for one-flesh union, and is inscribed in the human body’s procreative ecology,” he said.

He argued that male-female definition of marriage should not be altered to consider heterosexual-homosexual definitions.

“In arguing to protect and promote marriage, I have not once brought up homosexual orientation, nor will I,” he stated. “Jesus Christ died for every human being, and I want all to be treated as worthy of the shedding of His blood.”

“The truth about the human person revealed by reason alone should be supported by the state and in some instances by law,” the bishop said.  

He said while Wisconsin law currently recognizes marriage as the union between one man and one woman, there are other states in which legislators and judges have “taken it upon themselves to change the definition of marriage – which they have no right to do.”

“Because [marriage] is defined by the natural law, no one, not the Church and not the State, has the right to redefine marriage as anything but one man and one woman, one lifetime, with openness to children,” he said.

By adding the definition of marriage to the state constitution, it can protect it “from being illegitimately altered by judges or legislators.”

“I will never suggest that ‘faith’ be legislated or to tell people how to live their lives,” he said, “but I will always engage the culture with the truth, as can be known by reason alone, and insist that State recognize this truth.”