The truth is that Pope Leo XIII never wrote a word on gay marriage; He was the Catholic Pope from 1878 to 1903 when divorce, not gay marriage, was the newest attack on the family. Yet Pope Leo’s arguments opposing state divorce laws are relevant today in the present debate in secular society concerning marriage.
In the encyclical Arcanum from 1880, Pope Leo first gives a definition of marriage; and it’s interesting to note that even for a 19th century readership, who had no notion of “gay marriage,” the Pope is explicit that the union is one man and one woman:
“That marriage, from its institution, should exist between two only, that is, between one man and one woman; that of two they are made, so to say, one flesh; and that the marriage bond is by the will of God so closely and strongly made fast that no man may dissolve it or render it asunder.”
The Pope acknowledges that people rightly esteem marriage. And he notes that the Catholic Church has always been a protector of marriage, renewing and protecting it from distortion and abuse, particularly as relates to women. For there is no contradiction between the Catholic Church and feminism:
“A law of marriage just to all, and the same for all, was enacted by the abolition of the old distinction between slaves and free-born men and women;[23] and thus the rights of husbands and wives were made equal: for, as St. Jerome says, “with us that which is unlawful for women is unlawful for men also, and the same restraint is imposed on equal conditions.”
Just as Pope Leo XII watch civil society begin to weaken marriage by sanctioning divorce, we now see legislators and judges doing the same with gay marriage and civil unions. The Pope comments:
“But, now, there is a spreading wish to supplant natural and divine law by human law; and hence has begun a gradual extinction of that most excellent ideal of marriage which nature herself had impressed on the soul of man.”
Many people say that the Church has no business “interfering” in the issue of marriage – they don’t know their history. Christianity raised marriage to the level of a sacrament, therefore elevating it over the centuries in the minds of both Christians and non-Christians alike. A rejection of God’s blueprint for marriage has already, and will continue to, erode marriage and hurt both families and the state. Pope Leo wrote:
“When the Christian religion is rejected and repudiated, marriage sinks of necessity into the slavery of man’s vicious nature and vile passions, and finds but little protection in the help of natural goodness. A very torrent of evil has flowed from this source, not only into private families, but also into States.”
None of this is complicated: If we ask a child what a marriage is, they know instinctively it’s a married mom and a dad. So what happened? What happened is the same in 1880 as it is in 2009; the Holy Father Pope Leo comments:
“The chief reason why they act in this way is because very many, imbued with the maxims of a false philosophy and corrupted in morals, judge nothing so unbearable as submission and obedience; and strive with all their might to bring about that not only individual men, but families, also—indeed, human society itself—may in haughty pride despise the sovereignty of God.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that by imitating Christ, and being obedient to God, we acquire true freedom:
908 “By his obedience unto death, Christ communicated to his disciples the gift of royal freedom, so that they might ‘by the self-abnegation of a holy life, overcome the reign of sin in themselves.’”
