Reply #42: Documentary spotlights Catholic denial of paraplegic weddings

[Ian David]

Because marriage = 1 Woman + 1 Man (with a functional penis).

Documentary spotlights Catholic denial of paraplegic weddings

Flavia Fontes was talking on the phone when a headline in a small Brazilian
newspaper caught her eye:A paraplegic man was forbidden to get married by the
Roman Catholic Church because he was impotent. Even though Fontes, a Brazilian
filmmaker living in New York, was already immersed in another project, she
decided she needed to capture Hedir Antonio de Brito's story. The result is
"Forbidden Wedding," which premieres on the Sundance Channel at 9 p.m. EST
Monday.

De Brito was two weeks away from marrying Elzimar de Lourdes Serafim, a widow,
in August 1996, when he received a shocking letter from the local bishop
denying their application for a marriage certificate. According to canon law,
any man or woman who is impotent and unable to have intercourse cannot get
married. De Brito wrote a letter to Pope John Paul II to appeal the bishop's
decision, but didn't get a response.

<snip>
Their friendship and mutual acceptance - she had no education, he was in a
wheelchair - soon developed into romance and they decided to marry. Wedding
plans were well underway when a local priest asked de Brito during premarital
counseling if he was impotent and de Brito answered him honestly. The priest
told de Brito he couldn't marry the couple, which the bishop's letter
confirmed.

"If (de Brito) had left the issue in doubt, it wouldn't have been a problem,"
said the Rev. Dr. Bernard Olszewski, a canon law expert and vice president for
academic affairs at Hilbert University in Hamburg, N.Y. "Unfortunately, he gave
full disclosure. In a pastoral sense, it would have been better for the priest
to have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy."

More:
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=77128