By John Stegeman 
The Catholic Telegraph

Here’s a take on the importance of marriage, as God designed it, that you may not have heard.

“The child has the right to be conceived, carried in the womb, brought into the world and brought up within marriage: it is through the secure and recognized relationship to his own parents that the child can discover his own identity and achieve his own proper human development.”

The above quotation is not the work of William B. May, founder and president of Catholics for the Common Good Institute, but he spends time bringing it to people”s attention. The quote is a citation from Donum Vitae, a document produced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith “On Respect for Human Life in its Origin and on the Dignity of Procreation.”

May, who’s institute describes itself as a lay apostate for evangelization of the culture, gave a talk July 19 to more than 100 people at the Athenaeum of Ohio. The following day he spoke to faith leaders at Our Lady of Sorrows in Monroe.

The author of Getting the Marriage Conversation Right: A Guide for Effective Dialogue presented his talk at the Athenaeum on “Taking Back Marriage for Our Children and Families.”

In the talk May said the time for defending “traditional” marriage is over. The time to promote marriage reality is now. May said that using terms like traditional marriage or natural marriage are defeating the Catholic argument. By definition, using a qualifier before the word marriage implies that more than one kind exists. Marriage reality, he said, makes clear that there is only one type of marriage — the lifelong union of a man and a woman for the procreation of children.

“Marriage by free choice unites a man and a woman with each other and any children born from their union,” May said. “The Supreme Court decision was a grace. Marriage has already been redefined. Now we can start from the beginning.”

May said no-fault divorce, contraception and reproductive technologies separating sex from marriage and societal views seeing parenting as a lifestyle choice have contributed to the public opinion on marriage being redefined. Reality, however, stands in contrast to public opinion. May said children who grow up without both their parents see this reality better than most.

“The child knows reality,” May said. “It is an insult to the intelligence of a child to tell the child it is normal not to have a mother and a father. They know that is not true.”

May encouraged the faithful to “form a resistance” to the cultural occupation but to do so by promoting marriage reality, not by focusing on opposition to alternative families that already exist.

“Those kids love their two dads or their two moms,” May said. “Those moms and dads are trying to do the best job they can. We try to focus on the future, to help form people so that we once again understand that its a human right that child be born into a situation with their mom and dad united in marriage.”

To do this, May and the Catholics for the Common Good Institute encourage the laity especially to educate themselves, form small groups to study and also to pray.

“Prayer is essential to this new Catholic Action,” reads the CCG website. “In addition to social and political participation, we are asking the laity and religious communities to participate in this movement with intercessory prayer.”

While the promotion of marriage reality and the focusing on the child’s right to be born of a mother and father are important, May said, acknowledging that in no way demeans the heroic work of single parents or others who find themselves raising children that are not their biological issue.

To learn more, visit TakeBackMarriage.org or CGCaction.org.

Posted July 22, 2015