U.S. Catholic Bishops Issue Incredibly Homophobic Statement

The U.S. Catholic Bishops are planning on issuing a new statement on marriage soon which claims that the existence of same-sex marriage is an assault on every human being in the world.

Here is an excerpt from the section in "Marriage: Love and Live in the Divine Plan" (pdf) which is devoted to same-sex unions:

One of the most troubling developments is the proposition that persons of the same sex can "marry." This proposal redefines the nature of marriage and the family, and, as a result, harms the intrinsic dignity of every person and the common good of society.

Marriage is a unique union, different from other relationships. It is the permanent bond between one man and one woman whose two-in-one-flesh communion of persons is an indispensable good at the heart of every family and every society. Same-sex unions are incapable of realizing this specific communion of persons. Therefore, redefining marriage to include such relationships empties the term of its meaning, for it excludes the essential complementarity between man and woman, treating sexual difference as it were irrelevant to what marriage is.

[...]

The legal recognition of same-sex unions poses a multifaceted threat to the very fabric of society, striking at the source of from which society and culture come and which they are designed to serve. Such recognition affects all people, married and non-married: not only at the fundamental levels of the good of the spouses, the good of the children, the intrinsic dignity of every human person, and the common good, but also at the levels of education, cultural imagination and influence, and religious freedom.

The statements expressed above are so antithetical to my own beliefs and the beliefs of so many people that I do not even know where to begin to refute the claims within the text.

First, notice the scare quotes over marry in the first sentence. Are the Catholic bishops denying that marriages in the predominantly Catholic jurisdictions of Spain, Massachusetts and Connecticut (all of which allow same-sex couples to marry) are any less valid?

Second, there is a claim of harm to the "intrinsic dignity of every person and the common good" (emphasis added). This is simply insanity. You don't get to define my intrinsic dignity and the claim that same-sex couples are harming other people's "intrinsic dignity" is simple balderdash. What, exactly, is the harm caused by a same-sex marriage to ANY person who is not a party to that marriage?

The second paragraph is obsessed with the union of man and woman, which are claimed to possess an "essential complementarity." I presume this means that men possess something that women lack, and vice-versa. I would love to hear what these characteristics are. I do notice that whenever the text uses a masculine phrase and feminine phrase, it (almost) always places the male phrase first, in the primary, superior position: for example, "man and woman" and "husband and wife." This paragraph can clearly be interpreted as an expression of (and full-throated defense of) patriarchy, explicitly.

As Michael A. Jones of Gay Rights@Change.org says about this document that "the U.S. bishops just might have made the Catholic Church the most anti-LGBT religious institution in the country."

Indeed.