"Married" Love

Paragraph 8 begins with the phrase "married love" which to Pope Paul VI means a man and a woman marry to have children and start a family. It is natural, it is right, it is fixed-all because God has a well thought-out plan. God made man in his image so it is our duty to him as humans if we marry (and only to the opposite sex) start popping out kids.

"husband and wife, through that mutual gift of themselves, which is specific and exclusive to them alone, develop that union of two persons in which they perfect one another, cooperating with God in the generation and rearing of new lives."

Fact: the Pope does not have a wife and the pope does not have sex. I believe that because he has no experience with "married love" he does not have the authority to speak to this issue. Even after typing this, my Catholic guilt kicked in. Pope comes from the Latin word papa, and Catholics look to him as the father of the church. So much like with my own father's rules about curfew, what that father of the church says, goes. And just like with my own biological parents, I don't have to believe what the pope believes, but I have to respect him.

The Pope believes God's plan had led him away from married life and into the priesthood. We as Catholics were raised to believe in the "Divine Plan" which means we were taught that there is an order in the universe already created by God, as he knows each man and woman and their divine plan before they are even born. He foresees each person in their invidulaity and interrelationship and how they will serve their purpose according to God's will. So before you were born, you were chosen to marry or not and if you do find a husband or wife, guess what? You're having babies.

To the average American, this may seem absurd but this is a perfect example of Catholic Romance. It encompasses fate and destiny, your one true soul mate. Your partner is exclusive to you and your sex life is a "mutual gift" to each other.

But there is separation of church and state. And Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and DC.

Politics of a legal marriage threaten the church's power and ideal of "marriage" and consequently, "married love". If two men or two women marry they are incapable of reproducing naturally with each other. The consequences of believing in a fixed marriage of one man and one woman, which results in offspring, deeply excludes many of God's children, whom he has known before they were born. It is not only gay and lesbian couples which Humanae Vitae isolates, but any couple who chooses that marriage and children are not a package deal.