text: Marty, as I'm sure my posts indicate, I am only intermittently and unremarkably reasonable, and rate about the same in piety.  
  
  I will only point out that the very Catholic fact of annulments already gives evidence that there are arrangements called "marriages" by the Church, which, on review, are determined to be something else.  I take that to indicate that the question, "What is a marriage," while perhaps clear enough in the abstract, is not always so obvious when it comes to cases. 
  
  As for abortion, I think the Church did itself a disservice in ignoring Aquinas on the matter. I count him as reasonable and pious. To my eye, it seems that the Church, rather than answering the questions he raised on these matters, has decided not to ask them. While I'm sure there are reasons for that, it still looks (to me) like a refusal to engage with reason, and I have not encountered many defender's of the Church's doctrine on the matter that display much willingness to do so.