More than 20 prelates from Canada, the United States and Latin America will participate in the 32nd Meeting of the Bishops of the Church in America, the fifth since the 1999 apostolic exhortation «Ecclesia in America.» The Monday-to-Thursday meeting takes place in San Antonio.
The meeting will convene at a time when marriage advocates in the United States are hoping to stave off bicoastal assaults on the institution.
In California, groups went to court today to stop the city of San Francisco from issuing same-sex marriage licenses as hundreds of homosexual couples rushed to apply. The city challenged U.S. law on Thursday by issuing a marriage license to two lesbians.
In Massachusetts, state legislators adjourned a special constitutional convention without adopting a ban on same-sex marriage. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court had ruled in November that an existing ban on homosexual marriage violated the state Constitution.
