Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami in one of his recent weekly columns:

"...In seeking to redefine the legal definition of marriage to include same sex unions, President Obama and other proponents of "gay marriage" are in effect imposing their views and lifestyle on the larger populace. Once legal, the state's coercive power will punish those who refuse to embrace gay marriages. For example, public officials - regardless of their views on the rightness or wrongness of homosexual acts - will be obliged to officiate at same sex "weddings", and public schools will be required to teach their acceptability to children whether parents concur or not. Even First Amendment freedoms will not be protected from assault.

Marriage has been primarily about the raising of children (who seem to be hardwired to be best raised by a father and a mother who are married to each other). Society has a legitimate interest in favoring such traditional marriages as a way of investing in the future of society by providing for the human flourishing of upcoming generations.

Same sex "marriage" - if allowed to prevail in law - will result in the devaluation of all marriages with terrible consequences to society. That marriage is a life long union between a man and a woman is certainly part of Catholic teaching - in fact, in our teaching, this union is seen as a covenant and is a sacrament. However, marriage as a union between a man and a woman for the sake of family is not a product of religious sectarianism. Nor is marriage a creation of the state. It is founded in nature itself.

Marriage understood as a union between one man and one woman as an institution precedes church and state - if not a creation of Church or state, neither has any authority to change the nature of marriage.

The common good demands that the understanding of marriage as a union between one man and one woman not be lost."