The Archbishop of Sydney Australia, Anthony Fisher, recently reafirmed the Church’s teaching! Here are some excerpts!
“Married couples (as man and woman) are ‘signs of contradiction’
to parts of our present culture. Marriage, as traditionally understood, as universally understood meant a comprehensive bodily, psychological and spiritual union between a man and a woman whereby they become "one flesh" and so found a family. That's why these couples did not promise to become 'spouses' or 'partners' but to become 'husband' and a 'wife'. That's why they promised to be faithful ('for better, for worse', 'to the exclusion of
all others') and fruitful (open to new life) and final (indissoluble,
'till death do us part'). These dimensions of real marriage make it a sign today, a sign of contradiction, because some want
to reduce marriage to no more than a public statement of a physi-
emotional bond between any two people. On the Christian view, on the other hand, what is so special about marital relationships,
is that they bring together for life people of opposite sex, of
complementary sexuality, as 'man and wife', hopefully to found a family, the fundamental cell of Church and society, and to give
their all to that end, exclusively and for life. Marriage brings together
and attempts to hold together things that otherwise tend to fall apart: man and woman, sex and love, love andbabies, parents
and children…
“To say this is not to criticize anyone. We all know and love people who have genuinely given marriage their all and yet it has fallen apart. We know and love others who have tried and failed to have children. We know and love others with samesex attraction, who understandably want their friendships to last and be honored. We know and love others whose vocation has been to
remain single and !ind other ways to serve life and love. To say
marriage is special is not to demean these other realities; rather it respects the diverse ways of being human and loving, not pretending
away the differences.
“But there are voices in our culture that no longer think marriage need be for life, or be open to children, or be exclusive, or be between man and wife. They write off as bigoted those who stand by marriage as traditionally understood. As a result Christian couples today can !ind themselves in an uncomfortable position, for some politically, culturally and commercially powerful forces are determined to silence any alternative to their ‘politically’ correct position in this matter; to bully us all into accepting the deconstruction and rede!inition of a fundamental institution; and to
relegate questions of what marriage is and is for as secondary to
an homogenizing 'equality'.
“We must resolve to support marriages, so they really can be
faithful, fruitful, final unions of people of opposite sex, while also supporting and loving people in other situations too. Thank you
dear married couples for your prophetic role in teaching us all
how to love and to bear witness to Christ!