Responding to the decision by the New Mexico Supreme Court to redefine marriage and the decision of the U.S. District Court in Utah declaring Utah’s marriage amendment unconstitutional, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said, “In a visit to the United States of America, Pope John Paul II –who will be canonized by Pope Francis– declared, ‘Vast sectors of society are confused about what is right and what is wrong, and are at the mercy of those with the power to “create” opinion and impose it on others.’ Both the New Mexico Supreme Court and the Federal Court in Utah imposed a wrong decision about the meaning of marriage onto the people of their respective states.”
The Archbishop further said, “We must start off with the right question. It is not, ‘Is there a government interest in not recognizing alternative types of relationships as marriage?’, but rather, ‘Is there a public interest in societal recognition and regulation of the only kind of relationship that brings children into the world?’ Every human society in history has recognized that there is. By losing sight of this fundamental reality, confusion and error triumph.”
Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco is the chairman of U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.
