U.S. Bishops: DOMA Ruling ‘Renewed Our Determination’ to Defend True Marriage
Patrick B. Craine, LifeSiteNews Blog
The archbishop who leads the U.S. bishops’ fight against same-sex “marriage” says the U.S. Supreme Court’s June rulings on marriage has renewed the bishops’ determination to defend true marriage.
In an address at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) annual General Assembly on November 11th, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco lampooned the Supreme Court’s twin decisions of June 26th that ruled unconstitutional the definition of true marriage in the Defense of Marriage Act, and found the Prop. 8 backers had no standing to defend the California law.
According to Cordileone, who chairs the USCCB’s Subcommittee on the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, the rulings were “the most significant judicial decisions on marriage this country has ever experienced.”
“By advancing redefinition, the decisions harmed marriage and harmed our society,” he said, noting they produced negative effects “almost immediately.”
“At the same time these decisions have renewed our determination to witness to the truth that marriage can only be the union of a man and a woman,” he continued. “We know that our teachings on marriage and family reflect the life-affirming message of the Gospel, and we know that strengthening a marriage culture serves the common good of our country.”
“We are no doubt at a critical point in this country when it comes to the promotion and defense of marriage in the law,” he said.
The language of the DOMA decision was “particularly disheartening” and sets “troubling precedent for increasing efforts to redefine marriage,” he said. The decision “is now being used to challenge marriage laws in more than a dozen states that still recognize marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”
On the Prop. 8 ruling, he lamented that the measure’s backers were left to defend it because the state refused. “Increasingly we are witnessing public officials placing their opinions over the laws they are charged to defend,” he said. “In the area of marriage this has happened in a striking way with DOMA, Proposition 8, and in other jurisdictions with respect to marriage laws.”
In the question and answer period after his address, Bishop Felipe Estevez asked Cordileone how to address the fact that while young people are trending pro-life they are also turning against belief in true marriage.
In response, Cordileone suggested we may eventually experience a similar change on the marriage issue as we have on the pro-life front.