Is there a precise philosophical definition for marriage?

Next on Catholic Answers Focus.

Hello and welcome again to Catholic Answers Focus.

I am Cy Kellett your host and I wonder can you

explain marriage it's not unusual today to be asked for your definition of marriage

what makes a marriage a marriage why do you think that that's what marriage is?

It's a bit like being asked to define truth or goodness.

It's so fundamental that precise definitions are often difficult to come up with in the moment

or to explain and defend, Helping us get a handle on the meaning of marriage

today is Father Sebastian Walsh. Father Walsh is a Norbertine priest of the Abbey of St Michael

up in the Diocese of Orange, California, where he's a professor of philosophy for the seminary program. Father Walsh holds a master's in sacred theology and a doctorate in philosophy from the pontifical university of St. Thomas in Rome, known to you probably as the

Angelicum.

Hello Father, thank you for being with us.

You're welcome, Cy it's great to be here in studio with you.

I know, usually we connect to other ways.

Would you agree that marriage is one of those things

that's so fundamental if someone asks you to define it?

If you're just a normal regular person,

you might go, well, isn't I don't I don't have a

definition in my back pocket yeah I think that's true and it's partly because of the

fact that people haven't thought clearly about what marriage is that's led

us to this crisis in marriage today.

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