(13) Like every other human problem, the problem of de facto unions must also be
taken up from a rational perspective, more precisely, from “right reason”.[14][14] With this term from classical ethics, it is
stressed that the interpretation of reality and the judgment of reason must be
objective, and free from conditioning, such as disorderly affectivity or
weakness in considering sorrowful situations that inclines toward a superficial
kind of compassion, eventual ideological prejudices, social or cultural
pressures, conditioning by lobbies or political parties. Of course, Christians have a vision of
marriage and the family whose anthropological and theological foundation is
rooted harmoniously in the truth that comes from the Word of God, Tradition,
and the Magisterium of the Church.[15][15] But the
light of the faith itself teaches that the reality of the sacrament of marriage
is not something subsequent or extrinsic, or just an external “sacramental”
addition to the spouses’ love; it is the natural reality of conjugal love that
has been assumed by Christ as a sign and means of salvation in the order of the
New Law. Consequently, the problem of
de facto unions can and must be faced from the viewpoint of right reason. It is not a question primarily of Christian
faith but of rationality. The tendency
to oppose denominational “Catholic thought” on this matter to “lay thought” is
erroneous.[16][16]
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