Baltimore, Md., Nov 18, 2009 / 12:00 pm
On the final day of their annual meeting, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops published a pastoral letter on marriage titled “Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan,” which restates and clarifies the Church's teachings to empower those seeking to defend marriage against the cultural currents of cohabitation, contraception, divorce and same sex unions.
“Thank goodness this is out there, clearly stated, with ample documentation and very reasonably put forward,” Baltimore's Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien told the Baltimore Sun. “I think it's going to be a very positive document.”
The pastoral letter does not represent any new teaching on the part of the Catholic Church or the USCCB. Instead, it strives to be a definitive source used as a reference for those defending traditional marriage.
Noting that “couples too often reflect a lack of understanding of the purposes of marriage,” the document states that “marriage is a lifelong partnership of the whole of life, of mutual and exclusive fidelity, by mutual consent between a man and a woman, and ordered towards the good of the and the procreation of offspring.”