Statement from Archbishop Nienstedt on California U.S. District Court Ruling on Proposition 8

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St. Paul, MN – August 5, 2010) -- Today’s ruling by U S District Court Judge Vaughn R. Walker striking down the voter approved Proposition 8 ruling in California prohibiting same sex marriage-in that state, is both a disappointment and a challenge to the traditional and culturally acknowledged definition of marriage as being between one man and one woman. It is a sad and almost incomprehensible event for the court to deny both the Judean-Christian and natural law definition of one man one woman marriage, particularly after the people of the State of California had voted as free and responsible citizens to support it...

Having failed to change the definition of marriage at the ballot box, proponents of same sex marriage have shifted their strategies to using our courts to issue judicial fiats that will do so, corrupting the very meaning and role of marriage. As my fellow Bishop, Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, stated last month, “Marriage exists prior to the state and is not given to redefinition by the state. The role of the state is to respect and reinforce marriage.” And that means upholding marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

While today’s ruling is extremely disheartening to people in California and across this country, it will not deter the vast majority of us who believe in and cherish marriage as it has always been defined. I call on all people of good will to work tirelessly to defend marriage in this country against the efforts of those who seek to redefine it and to thwart its sacred purpose.