CA Catholics Back Prop 8 As AG Offers Soft Support

Catholic bishops are getting political in California, where they’ve endorsed Proposition 8, the amendment some hope will ban gay marriage in the Golden State.

The California Catholic Conference issued a statement Friday strongly encouraging members of the faith “to provide both the financial support and the volunteer efforts needed for the passage of Proposition 8.”

In the statement, the bishops say their position is based partly on the presumption that while all people deserve to be treated with dignity, being raised by a married mother and father is “the ideal for the well being of children.”

Meanwhile, state attorney general Jerry Brown said yesterday that Proposition 8 should not – and would not – invalidate same-sex marriages that have already gone down.

I believe that marriages that have been entered into subsequent to the (May 15) Supreme Court opinion will be recognized by the California Supreme Court. I would think the court, in looking at the underlying equities, would most probably conclude that upholding the marriages performed in that interval (before the election) would be a just result.

Brown garnered some conservative ire last month when he changed Proposition 8′s language in what some call a more forceful, discriminatory direction. Many believe the alterations will spur people to vote against the measure. Brown insists his language remains neutral.