And yet, none of those things are required for me to file a joint tax return or to otherwise be considered in a “real” marriage by the state. I do realize that you said in your OP that this was based in Catholic tenets, but since those are all man-made constructs that have no organic authority or basis, why should anyone who isn’t bought into dogma care?

The premise of your piece is essentially not about what is reasonable and not, or even about what is desirable or not — it’s about what meets arbitrary standards of artbitrary rules or not. If it enriches your life to follow those arbitrary rules, please be my guest, but it doesn’t really give you any standing to criticize someone else.