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USCCB News Release: Archbishop Cordileone Calls Minnesota's Move to Redefine Marriage Shortly After Mother's Day the "Height of Irony"

USCCB News Release (May 15, 2013)

  • Men and women bring different gifts to parenting
  • Redefining marriage in law serves no one’s good
  • Truth of marriage not going away

“It is the height of irony that the Minnesota legislature decided, and the governor signed into law, the redefinition of marriage just after we celebrated the unique gifts of mothers and women on Mother’s Day,” said Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco. Archbishop Cordileone chairs the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage. He said further, “It is all the more so given the fact that in the last election Minnesotans were led to believe that there was no need to define marriage in the constitution, that nothing would change if the marriage amendment didn’t pass.”

“It also renders senseless the very idea of President Obama’s National Fatherhood Initiative, in that a bill now becomes law in Minnesota that effectively claims that a mother and a father together are superfluous and can be replaced by two men or two women,” he added.

Archbishop Cordileone noted that Minnesota is the third state in just over a week to redefine marriage in the law.

“There are many of us Americans, including many Minnesotans, who stand for the natural and true meaning of marriage. They know that men and women are important; their complementary difference matters, their union matters, and it matters to kids. Mothers and fathers are simply irreplaceable,” he said. “Instead of strengthening, the Minnesota legislature’s decision to redefine marriage weakens motherhood and fatherhood, and so strikes a blow to all children who deserve both a mother and father.”

“Some wish to believe that sexual relationships outside of the marital context of husband and wife are innocuous, choosing to ignore the fact that they are actually harmful to individuals and to society as a whole,” he added.

“We know that now is the time to redouble our prayers, efforts and witness. The truth of marriage is not going away,” Archbishop Cordileone said. “We know what it takes to work toward a culture of life even in the midst of laws that work against us. The same is true for rebuilding a culture of marriage. No matter what the horizon may bring, we will continue in charity and truth to stand for justice and for the most vulnerable among us.”

The Minnesota law highlights further implications of marriage redefinition in the law. For example, the law states that terms such as “husband,” “wife,” “mother,” and “father” that denote spousal and familial relationships in Minnesota law are to apply equally to persons in an opposite-sex or same-sex relationship. The law also states that “parentage presumptions based on civil marriage” will also apply, thus allowing for children to have two mothers or two fathers.

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From the Minnesota Catholic Conference:

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An open letter from Minnesota faith leaders to the Minnesota legislature, urging lawmakers not to redefine marriage (April 18, 2013)

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Read other recent USCCB news releases:

 

2 responses to “USCCB News Release: Archbishop Cordileone Calls Minnesota's Move to Redefine Marriage Shortly After Mother's Day the "Height of Irony"”

  1. Gerald Donohue says:

    When the church realizes we are a people, and not a lifestyle, preference, lust, or sin, all objections to Lesbian Gay Bisexual and transsexual rights will go away. We exist. We exist despite discrimination, threats of jail, and capital punishment. So why do we exist? I don’t know. There is no up side to it. To my own self be true. I exist. Deal with me. My liberties do not diminish liberty, it enhances it. My marriage does not diminish marriage. It enhances it. The church recognizes it. Why else do the catholic church try so hard to expel celibate gay priests.

    • Erick says:

      Yes people with same sex attraction do exist and so do murderers and theives. Does that mean that murderers and theives should be allowed to do what they do..No! Why? Because it is wrong. Our rights come from God because He shows us what is right and wrong. Human rights come from God and Not from the government. I have same sex attraction myself but I recognize the greater love that comes from Our Lord. As for your “marriage” it undermines the need for a mother And father, especially in a country where the divorce rate is growing and the culture is trying to reduce marriage into a meaningless piece of paper, or into Any relationship involving two people. There is already a push for polgamy among gay “marriage” activist who are using that rhetoric. You must see beyond the sexual desires and fadism of the media and understand the meaning of right and wrong and fundamentally important to our existence.

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