Bill Donohue, president of the New
York-based Catholic League, has called on Catholics to support an
amendment to the U.S. Constitution which would define marriage as a
heterosexual union.
Donohue cited President Barack Obama's
evolution on marriage equality in calling for passage of the
amendment.
In 2004, Obama said that he was opposed
to such unions. Four years later, he reiterated his opposition,
saying that as a Christian “God's in the mix.”
“God got thrown from the mix in
2012,” Donohue
wrote, a reference to Obama's endorsement in May of that year.
Last
week, Obama said that he believes the U.S. Constitution
guarantees a right to marry for gay couples.
“I think the Equal Protection Clause
does guarantee same-sex marriage in all fifty states,” he said.
Donohue said that in making the
statement, Obama had “teed up a confrontation between our
long-established constitutional right to religious liberty and this
newly invented right to gay marriage.”
“The time is ripe for Catholics to
support … the federal Marriage Protection Amendment,” Donohue
said.
“As any astute political science
undergraduate knows, there is no constitutional right to gay
marriage,” Donohue asserted. “But now that this issue has been
thrust upon us by our constitutional law professor president, we need
to affirm marriage between a man and a woman in the U.S.
Constitution.”
A majority of American Catholics,
however, support gay rights. According to a Pew
Research Center report published earlier this month, 57 percent
of self-identified Catholics support marriage equality and 70 percent
said that society should accept homosexuality. Support among adult
Catholics under 29 was even stronger, with 75 percent in favor of
marriage equality and only 13 percent saying homosexuality should be
discouraged.