Sep 4, 2008 / 19:44 pm
A joint statement on marriage has been issued by a group of Orthodox Jewish and Catholic leaders, affirming their faiths’ “shared commitment” to God’s design of marriage between one man and one woman. Challenging efforts to create a “new definition” of marriage, the statement reaffirms the duty of the state to safeguard the traditional place of marriage.
Representing Catholics, the Bishop of Rockville Centre William Murphy signed the statement. He was joined by consulting members of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
On the Orthodox Jewish side, Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, the rabbi of the Young Israel Synagogue in New York, signed the statement with consulting members of the Orthodox Union and the Rabbinical Council of America.
The statement says that, at a time when many U.S. communities are discussing the meaning of marriage, leaders of both faiths affirm their commitment to “the ordinance of God, the Almighty One, who created man and woman in the divine image (Gen. 1:26-27), so that they might share as male and female, as helpmates and equals (Gen. 2:21-24), in the procreation of children (Gen. 1:28) and the building up of society.”