Catholics React to the Supreme Court's Decision on Gay Marriage; What We Do Now?

By Jean M. Heimann

"Harsh rhetoric (of those who oppose gay marriage) will continue because gay activists know the war on America is not over. Only this phase of the battle has been won. They are pushing on to create a new America. Bathing the White House in rainbow colors was just the initial re-branding of the nation. The next step will be changing the understanding of religious liberty. "
-- Al Kresta from his YouTube video (See bottom of the page.)

"Since same-sex marriage is now recognized as a fundamental human right guaranteed by the Constitution, those who oppose it can only be characterized as bigots animated by an irrational prejudice. To be sure, Justice Kennedy and his colleagues assure us that those who have religious objections to same-sex marriage will be respected, but one wonders how such respect is congruent with the logic of the decision. Would one respect the owners of a business who refuse to hire black people as a matter of principle? Would not the government, in point of fact, be compelled to act against those owners? The proponents of gay marriage have rather brilliantly adopted the rhetoric of the civil rights movement, precisely so as to force this conclusion. And this is why my mentor, the late Francis Cardinal George, so often warned against the incursions of an increasingly aggressive secular state, which, he argued, will first force us off the public stage into privacy and then seek to criminalize those practices of ours that it deems." -- Father Robert Barron 

The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on marriage is not a surprise. The surprise will come as ordinary people begin to experience, firsthand and painfully, the impact of today's action on everything they thought they knew about marriage, family life, our laws and our social institutions. The mistakes of the court change nothing about the nature of men and women, and the truth of God's Word. The task now for believers is to form our own families even more deeply in the love of God, and to rebuild a healthy marriage culture, one marriage at a time, from the debris of today's decision.
+Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Archbishop of Philadelphia

 "Today, five unelected judges decided to redefine the foundational unit that binds together our society without public debate or input." --Rick Santorum, Former Senator

Official Statement from Courage:

For nearly 35 years, Courage International has provided authentic pastoral care to men and women who experience same-sex attraction and who have made a free choice to embrace the call of Jesus Christ to live chastely in harmony with the teaching of the Catholic Church. Some of our members follow this call in loving marriages to a person of the opposite sex, while many others live chaste celibate lives, accepting the many heroic sacrifices that this requires in a spirit of cheerful, generous self-giving. Our members are a daily inspiration to the chaplains who serve them, and to the whole Church.

Mindful of the guidance of Pope Francis, and the priorities set for the Church by the Synod on the Family, Courage remains committed to ministering to this underserved community and, through the EnCourage apostolate, to those who love them. We are daily inspired by their joyful embrace of chastity and of the freedom that it gives them to love authentically, and believe that their compelling stories are a powerful witness to others.


Here is the official response from the USCCB:

Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable. Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over forty years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges does not settle the question of marriage today. Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.

The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the “integral ecology” that Pope Francis has called us to promote. Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.

What do we do now?

Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. As Catholic bishops, we follow our Lord and will continue to teach and to act according to this truth.

I encourage Catholics to move forward with faith, hope, and love: faith in the unchanging truth about marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions. 


Lastly, I call upon all people of good will to join us in proclaiming the goodness, truth, and beauty of marriage as rightly understood for millennia, and I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.


-- Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). 

"So what do we do? We continue to put forth our point of view winsomely, invitingly, and non-violently, loving our opponents and reaching out to those with whom we disagree. As St. John Paul II said, the Church always proposes, never imposes. And we take a deep breath, preparing for what could be some aggression from the secular society, but we take courage from a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. The Church has faced this sort of thing before—and we’re still standing." -- Father Robert Barron

My response: Pray for the conversion of our country! Continue to place our country in the hands of Mother Mary to be presented with our small sacrifices to Jesus. Love others and pray for them. Live lives of holiness that bear witness to the truth. Pray the Rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy as often as possible. Christ's Church has survived 2000 years and will prevail over evil. We have the victory through Him!




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