WASHINGTON, September 10, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The U.S. Bishops’ Administrative Committee voted September 9 to give general support to the Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and specifically opposed homosexual ‘civil unions.’. The Administrative Committee, which is comprised of 47 bishops, including committee chairmen and representatives of the 14 USCCB regions in the United States, took the action during its annual September meeting in Washington.
“We offer general support for a Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as we continue to work to protect marriage in state legislatures, the courts, the Congress and other appropriate forums,” said a statement by the USCCB Committee. It concluded, “Thus, we strongly oppose any legislative and judicial attempts, both at state and federal levels, to grant same-sex unions the equivalent status and rights of marriage—by naming them marriage, civil unions or by other means.” The statement drew attention to a recent Vatican document on homosexual civil unions recalling it was “emphatically opposing the legalization of homosexual unions”. Moreover, the USCCB statement reported that USCCB President Bishop Wilton D. Gregory “welcomed this statement” from the Vatican, “and further articulated our own conviction that such ‘equivalence not only weakens the unique meaning of marriage; it also weakens the role of law itself by forcing the law to violate the truth of marriage and family life as the natural foundation of society and culture.’” See the complete statement online at: https://usccb.org/comm/archives/2003/03-179.htm