A solution to the marriage muddle? | National Catholic Reporter Canon Law has never required procreative ability, only functionality. The Sacramental mystery of marriage has always been that the couple performs the marriage, with the Church only providing witness. The Genesis and Gospel passages having to do with a couple becoming one flesh have to do with indissolubility of marriage and the family dynamic of severing the relationship to the natal family and creating unity with the new spouse. There is no natural law reason, aside from a fear of change, to conclude that any of these truths do not adhere to gay marriages.
What the Church fears is a largely gay clergy quietly blessing these unions when done civilly (which they also do for secular marriages and marriages when not all the details have been accomplished having to do with marriage tribunals) or leaving the priesthood to pursue such unions themselves - or simply never signing up - or worse having them seek a right to marry and abandon continence as well.
This really becomes a problem if there is no separate celibate clergy on the track to the episcopacy, as without this tradition, Church property arrangements will have to change - with all such property being transferred from the personal ownership of the bishop to some kind of modern non-profit corporation or foundation.
Now you see why this issue is so important to the Bishops. Personal net worth.
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