USCCB Condemns Prop 8 Ruling

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops denounced an August 4 ruling in which a federal court struck down a California law defining marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

“It is tragic that a federal judge would overturn the clear and expressed will of the people in their support for the institution of marriage,” said Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). “No court of civil law has the authority to reach into areas of human experience that nature itself has defined.”

“Citizens of this nation have uniformly voted to uphold the understanding of marriage as a union of one man and one woman in every jurisdiction where the issue has been on the ballot,” added Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage. “This understanding is neither irrational nor unlawful. Marriage is more fundamental and essential to the well being of society than perhaps any other institution. It is simply unimaginable that the court could now claim a conflict between marriage and the Constitution.”