EDITOR’S NOTE: The Catholic Post’s regular editorial was held for this issue in order to print two statements released following the U.S. Supreme Court decisions on June 26 relating to same-sex marriage. Those statements follow:

FROM THE CATHOLIC CONFERENCE OF ILLINOIS

The Catholic Conference of Illinois regrets the U.S. Supreme Court’s wrong decision to invalidate the Defense of Marriage Act. Marriage comes to us through God’s nature as the union of one man and one woman.
The ruling, however, does not mandate a redefinition of marriage across the nation, so the citizens of Illinois can still preserve marriage by telling their state lawmakers to honor the natural truth of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

The Catholic Church in Illinois and across the world will continue to promote this truth.

The Catholic Conference of Illinois will work to preserve marriage and stress the disturbing lack of religious freedom protections included in Illinois’ legislative efforts to redefine marriage. The bill before the Illinois legislature lacks even the minimal protections found in other state laws authorizing the redefinition of marriage, including New York, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

FROM CARDINAL FRANCIS E. GEORGE, Archbishop of Chicago

This morning, in the guise of technical legal language, the United States Supreme Court advanced the project of making marriage in the United States a genderless institution. Since women and men are not interchangeable, the Court’s action is illogical and pretentious. The Court abuses its own authority when it permits civil law to alter the definition of marriage, which is a natural institution. What is truly at stake in these decisions is not the right of adults to love whom they please, but rather the right of children to have both a mother and a father.

Today’s decisions also bring us one step closer to the day when those who continue to distinguish between genuine marital unions and same-sex arrangements will be regarded as “bigots.” We have already seen the negative result of gender-free unions on Catholic social services here in Illinois and other states.

We can all be grateful that the Court did not create a new “right” to same-sex marriage, allowing Illinois and other states to continue to acknowledge in law what nature and nature’s God already tell us: that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for the sake of family.