With a narrow majority (5-4) the U.S Supreme Court issued the much awaited verdict on same-sex marriage. In reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling that homosexual marriage is a right, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) stated it was “profoundly immoral and unjust” for the government to declare that two people of the same sex “constitute a marriage,” and added that this “tragic error” harms the “common good” and “especially children.”

“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,” reads the statement issued by USCCB.

“Just as Roe v. Wade (the 1973 Abortion Legalization Law) did not settle the question of abortion over 40 years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges (the current gay marriage legalization case-2015) does not settle the question of marriage today,” said the bishops.

“Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail.”

“Today the Court is wrong again,” reads the statement.  “It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.”

The bishops, who oversee the Catholic Church in America, went on to reemphasize the complementarity between man and woman, in the natural order and in the scripture, and why only one man and one woman 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,” said the bishops.  “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,”

The statement further said, “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.”

In conclusion, Archbishop Kurtz, the USCCB president,  called on “all people of good will” to continue to defend marriage. “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,” said Bishop Kurtz.

Among the 9 Supreme Court Justices, 6 are Roman Catholic. But only four of the them (Samuel Alito, Chief Justice John Roberts, Anthony Scalia and Clarence Thomas) wrote their strong dissent against legalizing gay marriage. The other two catholic justices (Sonia Sotomayor and Anthony Kennedy) betrayed their catholic faith. The two were joined by the three other Jewish justices (Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Elena Kagen) forming a narrow majority to pass the law in favor of gay marriage.

(There are six Roman Catholics (Samuel Alito, Anthony Kennedy, John Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Sonia Sotomayor, and Clarence Thomas) and three Jews (Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Elena Kagen) currently serving on the supreme court.)

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