Gay marriage – totally irrelevant to Old Catholicism

Hardly anybody- on the political left or right-can say anything new on the gay marriage controversy. Asked my RELIGION, I invariably and unashamedly say CATHOLIC. No more than any left-wing Jewish intellectual do I deny my birth and background. Even the great Humanist, Isaac Asimov did  not hesitate to call himself a Jew. Even an atheist might have a sense of SACRILEGE in denying one's family roots and history. In a sense, our very SOULS belong to our direct ancestors, to the not-so-dead-past.

My reading of a 100 year old Baltimore Catechism ( angelic Sis let me borrow it) – a classic even by secular criteria- tells me that this red hot issue of GAY MARRIAGE should be a matter of complete indifference to the "devout Catholic". (in contrast to abstract SIN in general).

Shocked? Well read this:

    

"What is the Sacrament of  Matrimony? "QUESTION/ ANSWER :

"The Sacrament of Matrimony is the Sacrament that unites a  Christian man and woman in LAWFUL marriage." 

The text of this old Baltimore Catechism then explains that marriage is NOT "a mere human institution". . .  "but is divine and holy... as instituted by God in Eden". (page 140)

However, "Only those marriages of CATHOLICS are valid which are contracted before the parish priest and two witnesses." (page 144)

In the present day gay marriage controversy the "Church Militant" declare STATE MARRIAGE of a gay couple as invalid and UNHOLY. And yet the state itself is -in fact- is "a mere human institution". But I read in my dear old Baltimore Catechism: "The marriage of a  Catholic before a minister or civil magistrate is INVALID."

So it seems that for years the Holy Roman Catholic Church did not recognize ANY marriage as VALID performed by the STATE.

Now a recent federal court ruling once again checks the momentum of gay marriage: "One side is euphoric, the other dismayed. . . (November 6 news headline).

To be sure, I am no Aquinas, and will not be a candidate for future sainthood. But it seems to this confessed and un-confessed SINNER that for centuries  Catholic Marriage was on a pure metaphysical plane.

I must be careful here, I know. Because I may be looking into the very jaws of HELL.

QUESTION:  "What is Hell?"

ANSWER :  "Hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the sight of God for all eternity, and ARE IN DREADFUL TORMENTS".

But as a SOCIALIST– focused on the structure of human society- I have heard this lament before: "Marriage is an institution, but who wants to live in an institution?"

Others are more profane: "Marriage is Hell!"

In my sinful vanity, I think I have made here an original contribution to the gay marriage debate. An old bachelor, I am still more about rebellious DO IT than conformist I DO.

But God bless ALL of us!