S PECIAL Q UESTIONS T ODAY IN R EGARDS TO M ARRIAGE
 
There are special questions today in regards to marriage. The first is In vitro fertilization.  It is a very difficult situation when a young couple cannot conceive a child naturally. Some turn to in vitro fertilization as a solution to the problem. The first thing we have to remember is that children are not a right to marriage. No one has a right over another human being, not even an infant. Children are a gift from God.
 
As reproductive technology becomes more powerful, artificial conception is not morally acceptable. Why? Because it separates the two co-essential purposes of marriage.
 
The couple do not become parents through each other. They will always depend on the “donation” of someone else’s ( or one’s own) sperm or egg in order to bring about the birth of a child. Children “conceived” in this way are thus always and intentionally separated from either their father or their mother – sometimes even both. Furthermore, using technologies such as IVF means that conception does not take place within the loving embrace of husband and wife, but instead is a dehumanized act of production, a mere “putting together” of the parents’ genetic material. No child should be treated as a product. A child deserves to be an act of love, the fruit of his or her parents’ mutual, loving self-gift . A child is not something that is made, a product, a child is not a pet that one can get from a laboratory.
 
Another question we face as a society is the so-called, same sex marriage. 
First, we should never use that expression, it can never be a marriage.  Call it
whatever you wish, but not marriage.
 
Marriage has great public significance. Redefining civil “marriage” to include two persons of the same sex would have far-reaching consequences in society. Law is redefining marriage as simply: the romantic fulfillment of adults.  That erroneous definition no longer legally attaches parents to the children they procreate. Each child must have his or her right to a mother and father safeguarded.  When mothers and fathers are wholly interchangeable and, in turn, gender is inconsequential, the development of children will suffer.  When same-sex sexual conduct is equal in moral value to marital sex, then our society suffers.
 
A word on “ civil unions” or “ domestic partnerships” between two persons of the same sex:  it is living in a parallel universe. Nothing compares to the unique partnership of husband and wife, who through their sexual difference form a life-giving communion. No relationship between persons of the same sex can be the same as that between a man and a woman, nor should they ever be. Basic human rights are not protected but violated by the erosion and redefinition of marriage.
 
In Conclusion
One of the most recognized pieces of art is the Michelangelo’s fresco of the creation of Adam.  Usually, we just see a small part of the fresco, either the two fingers and the space in between God and Adam.  But if you study the entire scene, you see God outstretched in full grandeur and power and Adam laying, lifeless waiting to be touch by God and given the spark of life.  Under the sheltering left arm of God is a beautiful woman, Eve, who glances over at Adam, and Adam glances back at her.  And if you really notice God and Eve are within a pink backdrop in the form of the human brain.
 
Michelangelo depicts what we all know instinctively .  That from the very beginning, even before Adam came to life, God knew in His mind, Eve had to be created to complement and complete Adam’s life.  In that magnificent fresco, which is on the Sistine chapel’s ceiling, it is for me, in art, the story of marriage and of being male and female. Male and female complement each other, and the look of love must always have God in the middle.
 
If you have issues to discuss, call Fr. Raaser at 914-961-3643 or email at fr.raaser@icc-coa.org .