Pastor's Corner, May 3, 2015

Dear Parishioners and Friends,

On April 28, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Obergefell v. Hodges, along with three other cases that will decide the fate of state laws that define marriage as a union of one man and one woman.

The US Bishops Conference filed an amicus brief for the case saying, “Given both the unique capacity for reproduction and the unique value of homes with a mother and father, it is reasonable and just for a state to treat the union of one man and one woman as having a public value that is absent from other intimate, interpersonal relationships… No other institution joins together persons with the natural ability to have children, to assure that any such children are properly cared for by their own parents.”

Maintaining the God-given definition of marriage between a man and a woman should be of great interest for civil government. Again, the US Bishop Conference brief says, “It bears emphasizing that a government preference for husband-wife unions as the optimal environment in which to raise children is a judgment about marriage as the only institution that serves to connect children with their father and mother together in a stable home.” Every child has one biological mother and one biological father, and the child is most likely to do well when both parents are in the home.

This position is not based on bigotry. “It is not a judgment about the dignity or worth of any person, married or not,” the Bishops say. It is not about discrimination but about definition – the definition of marriage.

In Christ,

Msgr. Baker