In two related decisions, the US supreme Court voted 5-4 on two marriage-related questions raised for its consideration in their 2013 session. Given the cultural climate in the United States, where public 'support' to legalize gay unions as 'marriage' shifted drastically from disfavor to majority approval in the past ten years alone, I was hoping against hope that Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing vote between the so-called conservative and liberal members of the nine-man US Supreme Court, would prove to be sensible and vote with the four bona-fide conservatives on the Court (all four of them Catholics - Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito). Instead, he even turned out to be the author of the majority decisions.
Even if legally, the twin decisions do not explicitly redefine marriage as something more than just the union of a man and a woman, they do leave the question legally open, and in fact, a matter for each state of the Union to decide (as 14 states and the District of Columbia already do recognize same-sex unions performed by a public official to be the equivalent of traditional marriage.
Supreme Court Decisions on marriage:
US bishops lament 'a tragic day
for marriage and our nation'
WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013 — U.S. Supreme Court decisions June 26 striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act and refusing to rule on the merits of a challenge to California’s Proposition 8 mark a “tragic day for marriage and our nation,” said Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco, chair of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.
The statement follows:
Today is a tragic day for marriage and our nation. The Supreme Court has dealt a profound injustice to the American people by striking down in part the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
The Court got it wrong. The federal government ought to respect the truth that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, even where states fail to do so. The preservation of liberty and justice requires that all laws, federal and state, respect the truth, including the truth about marriage.
It is also unfortunate that the Court did not take the opportunity to uphold California’s Proposition 8 but instead decided not to rule on the matter.
The common good of all, especially our children, depends upon a society that strives to uphold the truth of marriage. Now is the time to redouble our efforts in witness to this truth. These decisions are part of a public debate of great consequence. The future of marriage and the well-being of our society hang in the balance.
Marriage is the only institution that brings together a man and a woman for life, providing any child who comes from their union with the secure foundation of a mother and a father.
Our culture has taken for granted for far too long what human nature, experience, common sense, and God’s wise design all confirm: the difference between a man and a woman matters, and the difference between a mom and a dad matters. While the culture has failed in many ways to be marriage-strengthening, this is no reason to give up. Now is the time to strengthen marriage, not redefine it.
When Jesus taught about the meaning of marriage – the lifelong, exclusive union of husband and wife – he pointed back to “the beginning” of God’s creation of the human person as male and female (see Matthew 19).
In the face of the customs and laws of his time, Jesus taught an unpopular truth that everyone could understand. The truth of marriage endures, and we will continue to boldly proclaim it with confidence and charity.
Now that the Supreme Court has issued its decisions, with renewed purpose we call upon all of our leaders and the people of this good nation to stand steadfastly together in promoting and defending the unique meaning of marriage: one man, one woman, for life.
We also ask for prayers as the Court’s decisions are reviewed and their implications further clarified.
Background information can be found at
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/marriage/promotion-and-defense-of-marriage/backgrounder-on-proposition-8-and-doma.cfm
This article in the Los Angeles Times typifies the joy in Mudville today - the gloating among liberals celebrating a win for one of their pet causes:
Supreme Court rulings:
The gay rainbow grows bright
By David Horsey
June 27, 2013
Never has the power of
an idea whose time has come been demonstrated more dramatically than in America’s rapid shift toward approval of same-sex marriage. The trickle turned to a steady stream and now, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to open the way to gay marriage in California and strike down key provisions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, it has become a flood.
Once regarded as an abomination that would never find acceptance, marital unions of a man with a man and a woman with a woman are being normalized in state after state. Even more powerful, the force of law is now heavily weighted against traditionalists who, only a few years ago, were comfortably in the mainstream of public opinion. They must be reeling from the speed with which they have been bumped to the margins.
When it came down to it, ancient religious teachings could not trump personal experience and common sense. The simple fact that so many gays and lesbians are longing to marry and live conventional lives pretty much like the rest of us worked against the contention that homosexuals are a bunch of hedonistic perverts who are out to destroy marriage and recruit kids to their lifestyle.
Now, the Supreme Court has ratified the view that marriage is a civil institution that can be made available to all citizens, no matter what their sexual preference may be.
The justices did not go so far as to legalize same-sex marriage in every state, but they did say that all marriages are equal under the law and, if a state chooses to expand the definition of marriage, the federal government cannot discriminate between married couples.
The court also tossed out an appeal of a lower court ruling that said California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage, was unconstitutional. Prop. 8 backers claim they still have some legal maneuvers left to try, but there seems little doubt that, within about a month, the nation’s largest state will join 12 other states, the District of Columbia and five Indian tribes who have already legalized same-sex marriages.
It may be a generation before states like Alabama, Kansas and Utah join the club (actually, Utah may take several generations), but the Supreme Court’s ruling is a watershed.
On this issue, America has made an abrupt turn and will not be turning back.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/06/2013 14:48]