Although recent polls on Catholics supporting same-sex “marriage” are
viewed as less disheartening than they appear, the results sparked a
call for education on the beauty and truth of Church teaching. Tim
Roder, associate director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops'
Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said that
Catholic belief in marriage is about “remaining faithful to Jesus and
his teaching.” He cited Christ's words about married couples in
the Gospel of Mark, chapter 10: “from the beginning of creation, God
made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one
flesh.”“We cannot be driven by polls,” Roder told EWTN News March 7.Surveys
indicating some Catholics' rejection of Catholic teaching show “there
is still much work to be done, particularly in educating the faithful on
the beauty of marriage as the unique union of one man and one woman.” The
U.S. Spanish-language television network Univision's recent global poll
of Catholics about their views indicated that about 54 percent of U.S.
Catholic respondents support “gay marriage.” Among this subset,
fifty-nine percent of respondents agreed that the Church should not
perform “gay marriages,” but 35 percent said the Church should. Among
the 12 countries polled, only Spanish Catholics showed more support than
Americans for these ceremonies in Catholic churches.Roeder
said it was a positive sign that even among supporters of same-sex
“marriage,” most rejected such unions being performed in Catholic
churches.Roder
noted, though, that only one-third of Catholics
who attended Mass weekly or more supported Church recognition of
same-sex “marriages.”He said that the survey results help show
that changing the legal definition of marriage “can indeed have a
cultural impact swaying more to support it. The law teaches for
good and ill,” Roder said. “When it teaches something false many just
accept it and this increases the profound cultural crisis in marriage
and family that Pope Francis spoke about in 'Evangelii Gaudium.'”Roder
said marriage is “a question of definition, not expanding rights.” It
is “impossible” for the Church to perform same-sex weddings.“The
body matters. Sexual difference between man and woman is essential to
marriage,” he said. “The Church cannot affirm something that is not true
or real. Only a man and a woman can enter a conjugal union open to the
possibility of children.”
The twelve apostles chosen by Jesus formed the bedrock of the early Church , and their Catholic identity is deeply rooted in their direct relationship with Christ and the mission He entrusted to them. The Catechism of the Catholic Church highlights this foundational role, stating that Jesus "instituted the Twelve as 'the seeds of the new Israel and the beginning of the sacred hierarchy'" ( CCC 860 ). These men were not simply followers; they were handpicked by Jesus, lived intimately with Him, witnessed His miracles and teachings firsthand, and were specifically commissioned to preach the Gospel to all nations ( Matthew 28:19-20 ). Their unique position as eyewitnesses to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and their reception of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, established them as the authoritative leaders of the nascent Church, a reality echoed in the writings of early Church Fathers like Ignatius of Antioch, who emphasized the apostles' authority as repre...