(RNS) Catholic bishops in New Jersey have begun a campaign against same-sex marriage in anticipation of a possible vote on the issue by state legislators after November’s gubernatorial election.
The bishops directed Catholic priests throughout the state to distribute in parish bulletins a 2,300-word letter opposing same-sex marriage. The priests are also expected to speak about the issue from the altar after Labor Day.
“The Catholic Church teaches today, and has always and everywhere taught for 2,000 years, that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” the letter reads. ” … This great truth about marriage is not some obscure doctrinal fine point but a fact of human nature, recognized from time immemorial by people of virtually every faith and culture.”
Official Catholic teachings against same-sex marriage are widely known, although polls indicate U.S. Catholics don’t collectively heed church teachings. In a Washington Post/ABC poll this spring, 46 percent of white Catholics favored legalizing same-sex marriage, compared to 49 percent of the general population.
The official Catholic teaching “needs to be reinforced often,” said the Rev. Marc Vicari, vicar for family life in the Archdiocese of Newark,explaining why the state’s bishops are pressing the issue for at least the third time in the last two years. “I don’t think people understand what marriage is from a Catholic perspective — even some Catholics who are getting married.”
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has supported past efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
The New Jersey bishops reason that, given that God “bestowed” the gift of marriage on humanity, “governments, therefore, have a duty to reinforce and protect this permanent institution and to pass it on to future generations, rather than attempt to redefine it arbitrarily for transitory political or social reasons.”
The document, signed by bishops in six dioceses, takes a less critical view of civil unions which are legal in New Jersey.
“Same-sex civil unions may represent a new and a different type of institution … but same sex unions are not marriage” the bishops’ letter says.
