Marriage vs civil partnership
Some time ago, I wrote about my objections to “same-sex marriage,” buttressed by a number of arguments that include its being contrary to natural law, contrary to the common good, it’s not being able to contribute in a proper way to procreation, and depriving children of the experience of fatherhood and motherhood, thus placing them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development, which is contrary to the UN Convention defining the Rights of the Child. However, I do not propose to repeat what I had already written about in another publication.
I was delighted to read, however, from an item in this publication, that there is growing support for civil partnership than the so-called “marriage” that has been bruited about for so long. Indeed, I myself have commented that a civil partnership, registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission would be the best alternative, as apparently what “samesex partnerships” are after are the civil rights obtaining from marriage, such as those that relate to property, inheritance, finances, etc., and not necessarily pining for a “holy relationship.”
I read that House Bill 6595 filed by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez legislates civil unions as the better option. Moreover, this Civil Partnership Bill has a much greater chance of being approved. As I myself felt, what is of interest is the legal recognition and the civil rights attached to it, without offending religious sensibilities.
Marriage, after all, is an institution that not only connotes religious beliefs, but as I averred, marriage is not just any relationship between human beings, but it exists solely between a man and a woman who mutually give of themselves toward the communion of their persons, as realized by the use of the sexual faculty. Through this union, man and woman are given special participation in the work of creation, and this is affirmed by natural law.
The bills (by Representatives, Geraldine Roman, Raneo Abu and Gwendolyn Garcia as well according to the news item I came across) aim to give “legal recognition to stable relationships outside marriage with the corresponding civil and legal rights and obligations.” This bill/ proposal for civil union, if enacted into law, would extend property and custodial rights to same-sex and heterosexual couples. And after all, isn’t this what they really want?
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