Jul 1, 2004 / 22:00 pm
The 1.5 million U.S. members of the Knights of Columbus are urged to “make the crucial difference” in the debate over the Federal Marriage Amendment by calling their senators or showing up at their senator’s local office and voicing their support for the measure.
The Senate will begin debating the amendment July 9; a vote is expected the following week.
“Amending the Constitution is something that we should never take lightly,” Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson said. “But the recent same-sex marriage decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court leaves no alternative. The danger that other state or federal courts will adopt their reasoning and strike down laws protecting traditional marriage is now very great.”
The amendment would declare that “marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman.” It provides that “neither this Constitution, nor the constitution of any State, shall be construed to require that marriage or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon any union other than the union of a man and a woman.”