Nat’l Catholic Reporter writer gushes: lesbian ‘wedding’ ceremony a ‘foretaste of eternity’

by Kathleen Gilbert

July 28, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A columnist at the National Catholic Reporter has published a glowing account of a homosexual “marriage” between two Catholic lesbians, describing the event as a “transcendent” experience likened to a “foretaste of eternity.”

Jamie Manson, an award-winning columnist at the prominent Catholic paper, which is known for its regular opposition to official Catholic teaching on key issues, published her observations of the event in a column entitled “Witnessing a Catholic Same-Sex Wedding.”

“The 20 people in attendance, whose ages ranged from 21 to well over 70, all shared two things in common with the couple. Every one of them is gay or lesbian, and every one of them is deeply committed to their Catholic faith,” wrote Manson.

“It was one of those moments that I have experienced rarely: a moment of genuine joy, peace, and deep communal friendship. It was at once very real, but also transcendent. Perhaps a foretaste of what eternity might be like.”

Manson went on to compare the event favorably with true marriage and criticized the Catholic Church’s position that sexual activity between persons of the same sex is “intrinsically disordered.”

“For me, one of the ironies of the Catholic opposition to same-sex relationships is the appeal to natural law, specifically the notion that same-sex relationships violate nature because they are not capable of procreation. Interpreting natural law in this way reduces human beings to their biological functions,” she wrote.

Manson lamented that it could take the Catholic Church “centuries” to recognize homosexual “marriage” as “a holy union because of the love, faithfulness and mutual respect they shared.”

“Lucky for those of us gathered in the park on that balmy, blessed, late afternoon, the presence of God is not subject to the limited, fallible men who make church law,” she concluded.

When Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex “marriage” in 2004, the National Catholic Reporter published an editorial stating: “The ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts allowing same-sex civil marriage is a beneficial step along the path of human understanding and human rights.”