San Francisco’s punchy new archbishop, Salvatore Cordileone, thinks Catholics should use the term “same-sex marriage” only “sparingly,” and added this analogy by way of explanation, as per Josh McElwee of the National Catholic Reporter:
Speaking to the London-based Catholic Herald, Cordileone compares the term to male lactation.
“Legislating for the right for people of the same sex to marry is like legalising male breastfeeding,” states Cordileone in the interview.
The good archbishop might be interested to know that in certain, rare circumstances, males can, in fact, lactate. Those familiar with podcasts might be interested in this from the “Stuff You Should Know” folks. Fair warning: The podcast uses descriptions of male and female anatomy.
There’s an old saying that every analogy limps, but this one lactates.
More important, the Archbishop may have provided further evidence of the limits of the Natural Law that is often invoked by Catholics and opponents of same-sex marriage (or male lactation) — limits that my colleague Mark Silk has explored here and here.