California Catholic bishops affirm sanctitiy of marriage
Marriage is a God-given institution to join a man and woman in nurturing and supporting new life and can only be harmed if it is redefined, several Catholic bishops have said in pastoral responses to the California Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
“The meaning of marriage is deeply rooted in history and culture, and has been shaped considerably by Christian tradition. Its meaning is given, not constructed,” Cardinal Roger Mahony and the six other bishops of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles wrote in a June 16 letter.
“The state has a primary and fundamental obligation to protect and promote the family, which is rooted in marriage and sustained by it,” the Los Angeles statement continued.
“Some benefits currently sought by same-sex partners can already be obtained without regard to marital status. For example, individuals can agree to own property jointly with another, and they can generally designate anyone they choose to be a beneficiary of their will or to make health care decisions in case they become incompetent. Other desired benefits such as sharing in a partner’s health insurance could be made available without the drastic step of a cultural or legal redefinition of marriage.
“Let us strengthen our resolve to respect the dignity of each human being and to protect the sanctity of marriage, asking God’s guidance in our efforts to promote the common good central to a free and democratic society.”
Also on June 16, the day the Supreme Court’s ruling took effect, Santa Rosa Bishop Daniel F. Walsh noted that marriage is grounded in natural law and is not subject to social change.
“In the current situation,” he wrote, “some voices define marriage only in terms of ‘personal choice,’ as if marriage were merely a design of two persons – with nothing to do with family or society. Marriage is a relationship defined by nature, a reality which takes its origin in creation itself. Society does not create marriages, even though it sets parameters protecting it – such as the ban on polygamy and an age requirement to protect a mature decision to enter marriage. The state has a primary and fundamental obligation to protect and promote the family, which is rooted in marriage and sustained by it.
“Marriage between a man and a woman preceded the existence of the state. No mayor, legislature or judge can reconstruct what marriage essentially is. Marriage as a union of a man and a woman is an institution established by God at the moment of creation. The Church upholds this truth about the nature of marriage.
“We must strengthen our resolve to respect the dignity of each human being as well as to protect the sanctity of marriage.”
In a June 4 pastoral message, Bishop William K. Weigand and Bishop Jaime Soto of the Diocese of Sacramento called the decision to legalize same-sex marriage “a profoundly disturbing matter.”
“No government can change the irrevocable order which God has inscribed in our nature,” the Sacramento bishops wrote. “That a same-sex union is not a marriage is a conviction which all Catholics implicitly affirm when, in our baptismal promises, we profess that we share the Church’s faith that the ‘Father Almighty (is) the Creator of heaven and earth.’
“The recent court action removed the language to speak of that which is an essential building block of society, the sacred union of a man and woman for the sake of creating a family. Our own values and vision about the family are, in effect, now deemed private. Yet, the Gospel we preach and the Gospel we are called to live is a Gospel of life. It is a Gospel that says ‘yes’ to life. Our ‘no’ to same-sex unions is defined by our ‘yes’ to human life as God created it. We cannot be indifferent about something that ultimately will be detrimental to human life and society.”
The Sacramento bishops urged support for the November ballot initiative to amend the California constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman.
San Jose Bishop Patrick J. McGrath, in a letter June 17, concluded: “I call upon people of goodwill to respect the dignity of every person and to protect the sanctity of marriage. Let us ask God to guide us in the same mutual respect and civil discourse that is fundamental in a free and democratic society.”
The bishops’ messages are consistent with a 2003 reflection by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
“No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons,” he wrote in “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons.”
“In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives,” he wrote, adding:
“The natural truth about marriage was confirmed by the Revelation contained in the biblical accounts of creation, an expression also of the original human wisdom, in which the voice of nature itself is heard.”
In 1996, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops said support of marriage is essential at a time when families are under stress. The bishops stated that opposing same-sex marriage does not constitute unjust discrimination or animosity toward homosexuals.
In a statement released shortly after the May 15 state Supreme Court ruling, San Francisco Archbishop George H. Niederauer said Catholic teaching on marriage is clear and based on the teaching of Jesus, who said God “made them male and female” and “for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.”
“At a moment in our society when we need to reinforce the strength of marriage and family, this decision of the Supreme Court takes California in the opposite direction,” the Archbishop wrote. “This action challenges those in society who believe in the importance of the traditional understanding of marriage to deepen their witness to the unique and essential role that marriage between a man and a woman has in the life of society.”
In a statement sent to all parishes and departments of the Oakland Diocese on May 16, Oakland’s Bishop Allen Vigneron called the ruling “a profoundly significant matter” and stressed that the “experience of history – both ancient and in our own time – has taught us that no government has the power to change the order which God has inscribed in our nature.”
“The conviction that same-sex couples cannot enter marriage is a conviction which all Catholics implicitly affirm when, in our baptismal promises, we profess that we share the Church’s faith that the ‘Father Almighty (is) the Creator of heaven and earth.’”
The Oakland bishop also said “efforts to enshrine this wisdom about marriage in the law of our community are not an imposition of an ideology, but a service of the truth which we make for the common good. This wisdom about the nature of marriage is not a form of discrimination, but undergirds our freedom to live according to God’s plan for us.”
The bishops’ statements and other materials about the same-sex ruling can be accessed on the CCC’s website: www.cacatholic.org
Here is where the statements are posted: www.cacatholic.org/bishops-statements/what-is-marriage.html
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