Denver, Colo., Jun 5, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Archbishop Charles Chaput has urged Catholics to contact their senators and encourage them to vote for the federal amendment. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a federal marriage amendment this week.
“State laws protecting the identity of marriage and the family are not enough,” the archbishop of Denver said in his weekly column. “They can be changed by state legislators and overturned by state judges. Even state constitutional amendments, while they offer much stronger protection, may not be entirely safe.
“We urgently need both: a federal marriage amendment, and a state constitutional amendment defining and protecting marriage,” he said.
The archbishop offered as an example what happened recently in Georgia. A judge used a technicality to toss out a state constitutional amendment protecting marriage that had won 76 percent of the vote in 2004.