Scottish Catholic Observer

America’s most senior Catholic archbishop has issued a stern challenge to President Barack Obama’s decision not to support a federal ban on same-sex marriage, and warned the president that his policies could ‘precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions.’

In a letter last week, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York (above right), president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he and other prelates have grown increasingly concerned since the administration announced last February that it would no longer defend the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court.

The Obama administration says it believes the law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman is unconstitutional.

Civil rights argument

Archbishop Dolan said the bishops are especially upset that the administration and opponents of DOMA are framing their argument as a civil rights issue, which he said equates ‘opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or wilfully ignorant racial discrimination.’

The archbishop also argued that traditional marriage is best for society, and that treating same-sex marriage as a civil right would lead to discrimination against believers and against church agencies that could not, for example, accommodate gay couples as adoptive parents.

“The administration’s failure to change course on this matter will precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions,” he warned.

He then underscored the Church’s position recognising ‘the immeasurable personal dignity and equal worth of all individuals, including those with same-sex attraction’ and said ‘we reject all hatred and unjust treatment against any person.’

Traditional marriage

The two-page letter was followed by a three-page analysis from the USCCB’s legal staff that charges the administration with ‘hostility’ to traditional marriage and a ‘new, more aggressive position’ on behalf of same-sex marriage.

In marked strong language, it also argues that the administration treats millions of Americans who oppose same-sex marriage ‘as if they were bigots.’

The tenor of the bishops’ warning appears to signal an escalation in their battle against same-sex marriage, as well as a hardening of their opposition to President Obama (above left)  just as the 2012 presidential campaign gets underway. The bishops’ new hard line was welcomed by American conservatives, and it comes as the president is facing record-low opinion ratings.

The day before Archbishop Dolan sent his letter to the US president on marriage, the bishops of Washington, Maryland and Delaware sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that strongly objects to proposed regulations mandating health care coverage of contraception.

For the Catholic Church, which considers the use of artificial birth control a sin, the mandate is ‘a radically new and unprecedented attack on religious freedom,’ Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Baltimore Archbishop Edwin O’Brien and Wilmington Bishop W Francis Malooly, said.