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US Supreme Court Legalizes Same-Sex “Marriage”
Mandating Marriage Redefinition “A Tragic Error” Says US Bishops Conference President
Junno Arocho Esteves
The United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex “marriage” across the country today. Five of the Supreme Court justices ruled in favor, while four dissented. While the decision will overturn state bans on same-sex "marriages", it allows opponents of the ruling three weeks to ask for reconsideration.
“They ask for equal dignity in the eyes of the law. The Constitution grants them that right,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority ruling.
However, in his dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts argued that the question of same-sex “marriage” had "nothing to do” with the Constitution.
“Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us,” he wrote. “Under the Constitution, judges have power to say what the law is, not what it should be.”
“The fundamental right to marry does not include a right to make a State change its definition of marriage,” he continued. “And a State’s decision to maintain the meaning of marriage that has persisted in every culture throughout human history can hardly be called irrational. In short, our Constitution does not enact any one theory of marriage. The people of a State are free to expand marriage to include same-sex couples, or to retain the historic definition.”
Chief Justice Roberts went on to say that majority decision to legalize same-sex “marriage” was an “act of will not legal judgement”. He also questioned whether in a democratic republic, such a decision should be made by the people through their elected representatives “or with five lawyers who happen to hold commissions authorizing them to resolve legal disputes according to law.”
“The Constitution leaves no doubt about the answer,” he concluded.
“A Tragic Error”
Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that despite the Supreme Court’s decision, “the nature of the human person and marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable.”
“Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over forty years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges does not settle the question of marriage today,” he wrote. “Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail.”
Archbishop Kurtz called the Supreme Court’s decision “wrong” and immoral”, stressing that it is unjust for the US government “to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.”
Citing the Holy Father’s recent encyclical, Laudato Si’, the USCCB President said that protecting the meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman “is a critical dimension of the ‘integral ecology’ that Pope Francis has called us to promote.”
“Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home,” he wrote.
Concluding his statement, Archbishop Kurtz encouraged Catholics in the US to continue to move forward in faith, hope and love.
“Faith in the unchanging truth about marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions,” he wrote.
