Washington D.C., Mar 27, 2013 / 03:03 am
Speakers at the national March for Marriage told the crowds gathered in Washington, D.C., that marriage is fundamentally about preserving an institutional link between parents for the sake of their children.
"Marriage matters because family matters to our society and because marriage matters for families," said Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.
"Society needs an institution that connects mothers and fathers to their children," he told CNA.
The March for Marriage took place on March 26 on the National Mall, with a rally and march in front of the Supreme Court. Organizers estimated that some 15,000 people were in attendance.
The event coincided with the first day of oral arguments before the Supreme Court on two cases concerning same-sex "marriage." Rulings in the cases are expected this summer and may determine how the issue is handled across the country.
Rev. Bill Owens, founder and president of the Coalition of African-American Pastors, refuted the idea that same-sex marriage is an issue of civil rights.
Owens, who marched in the Civil Rights Movement, criticized the analogies of same-sex "marriage" to the historic movement for racial equality. Efforts to preserve the definition of marriage as it always has been are not comparable to "what we suffered," he said.
"I am marching again, and this time I'm marching to defend marriage," Owens explained.