.....Firstly, given same sex couples have the same legal and financial arrangements as heteroseual couples, I wonder what the fuss is all about?

TAC, what the fuss is all about is that the word 'marriage' is taken and means a union between a man and woman.

My marriage of 28 years is special to me and I most certainly don't wish to share it with same sex couples.

The solution is very simple though, just find another word. Problem solved.

My contingency plan, should gays get their way, is to not recognize their marriage as being the same as mine.

I seriously doubt gays will be able to accept that while getting their way is one thing, but being accepted is another.

It will haunt them forever, unless they simply find another word.

Seriously, how hard can it be!

Zoe

"....In Catholicism, only Catholics can marry, and only then if not divorced."

"Catholics may no longer marry heretics - anyone baptised who is not a Catholic. Dispensations may be given of course."

The second statement contradicts the first. Divorce is a civil matter and some divorced Catholics can marry in the Catholic Church with all of the Rites that go with Marriage.

A homosexual relationship might be equal to a heterosexual relationship but it is incontrovertibly different. The word "marriage" differentiates the union of heterosexuals from all other types of relationships. So homosexual activists and your supporters don't be lazy. Go and come up with a word that should attach to the union of homosexuals. If you want your type of relationship respected, respect the relationships of those that are different.

>>Divorce is a civil matter and some divorced Catholics can marry in the Catholic Church with all of the Rites that go with Marriage.<<

Conditions apply. Divorce is a civil matter but the Church considers marriage a religious matter as well as civil matter. If you get married and then divorced the Church takes the position that you are still married. You cannot marry somebody else because that would be bigamy. Divorced Catholics can only remarry within the Church if their previous marriage(s) have been annulled or if their former spouse has died.

>>My marriage of 28 years is special to me and I most certainly don't wish to share it with same sex couples.<<

You won't have to. Attendance at spouse-swapping parties will not be mandatory; you will not have to trade in your wife for a hairdresser named Raoul. You will not have to host dinner parties with gay couples and cook special kosher meals for that kooky lesbian couple who've converted to Kabbalah. You will not be required to take photographs of cherished moments from your marriage, blow them up to billboard size and post them around Oxford Street.

In fact you won't have to do anything. Your life won't change in the slightest - and if it will I'd love to know how. All that will change is that some gay couples sometime in the future will have the opportunity to say 'my marriage of 28 years is special to me'. Why does that prospect make you so anxious?

Why does it matter so much if they call it a marriage? The name they use isn't going to affect the status of their legal rights, so why does it matter if they want to call it a marriage instead of something else? What difference does it make?

Cheers,

Tony

Tony,

"Conditions apply. Divorce is a civil matter but the Church considers marriage a religious matter as well as civil matter. If you get married and then divorced the Church takes the position that you are still married. You cannot marry somebody else because that would be bigamy. Divorced Catholics can only remarry within the Church if their previous marriage(s) have been annulled or if their former spouse has died."

So some divorced Catholics can marry within Catholicism.
One can, under some circumstances, have been legally married then divorced, but still get married in the Church and no dispensation is required as the Church considers that one is not and never has been married.

A church wedding is just that a church wedding, it only becomes a marriage after the church ceremony, when the official marriage register is signed and witnessed.
The church ceremony is purely a beforehand theatrical show, prior to signing the official marriage register.