By: Deacon Keith A Fournier
(c) Third Millennium, LLC

In an act of arrogance and overt social, cultural and legal “alchemy”, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts ruled today that Marriage is no longer only between a man and a woman. They redefined the family by judicial fiat. In so doing they drew the line in the sand. They decided they had the “power” to change the truth. Theologians and Philosophers speak of ontology as the science or philosophy of being. For example, a rock is a rock and not a cabbage; a man is a man and a woman is a woman. Marriage is ontologically between a man and a woman, ordered toward the union of the spouses, open to procreation and forms the foundation of family. No Court can declare otherwise.

But the “Supremes” in my beloved home State have done just that.

Their unilateral action undermines the first vital cell of society and in so doing threatens our public order. In making their decision to redefine marriage into what they say it is, they have simply followed what the legal positivists have long proclaimed, “The law is what the courts say it is.” They have also joined a cultural revolutionary force more potentially lethal to the common good than Chairman Mao’s reign of terror. Make no mistake; those who claim that this is simply a matter of “tolerance” are actually the most intolerant. They will now use this decision to begin their long planned strategy of forcing their brave new world on the rest of us through strategic action and the use of the judicial process in every State. Watch how intolerant they are of those who, though respecting the dignity of every person, including homosexuals, also insist that marriage is what it is and not what some renegade Court redefines it to be.

This poorly reasoned opinion is unconstitutional, but much more, is a violation of natural law, a usurping of the will of the people and a strike against civilization.

Now, juxtapose this judicial opinion with the extraordinary clarity, courage, compassion and deep conviction that the Vatican’s “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” demonstrated when it issued its long awaited document entitled “Considerations regarding Proposals to Give Legal recognition To Unions Between Homosexual persons” on June 3, 2003. Along with millions of Catholics, other Christians, other people of faith and good will, I am so deeply grateful for the wisdom, the pastoral care, and the authority of the Catholic Church in speaking to one of the most vital issues of our day.

The document presented nothing new. It simply restated the unbroken tradition of the Catholic Christian Church for two thousand years:

“The present Considerations do not contain new doctrinal elements; they seek rather to reiterate the essential points on this question and provide arguments drawn from reason which could be used by Bishops in preparing more specific interventions, appropriate to the different situations throughout the world, aimed at protecting and promoting the dignity of marriage, the foundation of the family, and the stability of society, of which this institution is a constitutive element. The present Considerations are also intended to give direction to Catholic politicians by indicating the approaches to proposed legislation in this area which would be consistent with Christian conscience”

However, it did so at a time when such a clear, forceful and unquestionable restatement was absolutely necessary. Let’s face it; there is a social revolutionary movement, led by those on the fringes of the homosexual activist community that is bent on forcing legal recognition of homosexual unions, and equivalency between those unions with marriage. Such a movement not only undermines marriage and family, it threatens the civil order and the common good. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is only the first institution to become a witting tool in the hands of the new cultural revolutionaries.

The only institution that can lead the struggle against this new Cultural Revolution is the Catholic Church. However, we must also be brutally honest about our own house. We have serious confusion in some circles of the Christian community. Purporting to speak for the Church, or to promote some “new way”, some Christian voices, (some deeply confused or misinformed, others deluded or disingenuous, and some overtly rebellious) undermine the Church, do violence to the truth, cause scandal, injure the common good and put their own souls in jeopardy.

Numbered among these folks are some unfaithful Catholic politicians who have already hidden behind a “public/private” duplicity concerning of their absolute duty to defend life. Now they are doing the same thing by failing to defend marriage and family and thus undermining the common good. The Vatican Congregations document could not be clearer in ...