With attacks on marriage and the family growing day by day, worldwide, it is good to read about any ‘fight back’ on the part of Catholic bishops, in particular.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, who is also president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote to President Barack Obama last month, calling on him to stop the undermining of DOMA – the Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as between one man and one woman. The Archbishop told President Obama that his (the President’s) Administration will undermine marriage and create a serious breach of Church-State relations if it continues to whittle away at DOMA. The letter to President Obama was accompanied by an analysis of the Administration’s threats to marriage.
Archbishop Dolan wrote:
Let us pray, and hope, that the Archbishop’s admonition may have some impact on the President of the U.S., and that the Bishops’ Conferences in other countries around the world will follow in the footsteps of Archbishop Dolan by challenging their own national governments in a similar manner‘Our profound regard for marriage as the complementary and fruitful union of a man and a woman does not negate our concern for the well-being of all people but reinforces it. […] While all persons merit our full respect, no other relationships provide for the common good that marriage between husband and wife provides. The law should reflect this reality. […] Our federal government should not be presuming ill intent or moral blindness on the part of the overwhelming majority of its citizens, millions of whom have gone to the polls to directly support DOMAs in their states and have thereby endorsed marriage as the union of man and woman. Nor should a policy disagreement over the meaning of marriage be treated by federal officials as a federal offense – but this will happen if the Justice Department’s latest constitutional theory prevails in court.’
