Group mobilizes Catholics, organizes petition to support marriage amendment

Washington D.C., Jul 4, 2004 / 22:00 pm

Catholics in the United States have organized a petition in support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, on which the Senate will vote the next week.

The constitutional amendment would protect the definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

Catholics are urged to sign the petition, which is available at www.catholicsprotectmarriage.com.

The petition warns that once the traditional definition of marriage is changed and labeled as discriminatory by the courts, “people who teach the Catholic faith will be treated like bigots in the public square.”

It also states that a redefinition of marriage would send the message that children do not need mothers and fathers, and that marriage has nothing to do with procreation and raising children with the loving care of both a mother and father.

To date, signatories of the petition include: Thomas Kohler and Scott FitzGibbon of Boston College Law School; Gerard Bradley of Notre Dame Law School; Robert Destro of Catholic University of America; Richard John Neuhaus, editor of First Things Magazine; Austin Ruse, president of the Culture of Life Foundation; Robert Royal of the Faith & Reason Institute;

Raymond L. Flynn (D-Boston), former mayor of Boston and U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican;

Teresa Stanton Collett of University of St. Thomas Law School, and Lawrence Kudlow, co-host of CNBC's “Kudlow & Cramer”.