Reply #62: Vatican also opposes hetero cohabitation [View All]

[IndianaGreen]

"In no way can other forms of cohabitation be placed on the same level as marriage, nor can they receive legal recognition as such," the January document said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10811-2003Jul31.html

Vatican also opposes hetero cohabitation as it does any marriage that does not lead to children.

So much for couples no longer in their child bearing years.

At the bottom lies the belief that women's roles is to produce children. This is not a belief unique to Catholicism, and it is unfair to characterize it as such.

We need to look no further to the Gospel of Matthew in which an unknowingly pregnant Mary gets a visit from an angel and she is told that she has been impregnated by God.

We all read this story without realizing that among its elements one has the rape of Mary by a Deity who impregnates her without her previous consent. Had that been a man who had done that, under our legal system, he would have been arrested and charged with rape.

This is the problem with basing public policy on religious beliefs. What may seem to the believer a story about Mary's submission to God, to the non-believer it is a story of rape and forced impregnation of a young impressionable woman.