BISHOP SOTO AND THE CALIFORNIA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE OF BISHOPS CONTINUE CHURCH TEACHING IN THE BATTLE AGAINST SAME SEX MARRIAGE..........

Bishop Jaime Soto, as the Chief Shepherd of Souls in the twenty counties of Superior / Northern California, that comprise the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, and as the Bishop of Sacramento, the Shepherd of the State Capital of California, has released a Statement in response to Federal District 9 Court Judge Walker's decision on Wednesday regarding the constitutionality of same sex marriage in California and the overturning Proposition 8. Bishop Soto's statement reads in part, "The Honorable Judge Vaughn R. Walker chose to ignore the common sense decision of the California voters and overruled Proposition 8. Efforts to restore the longstanding tradition of marriage to the California Constitution will continue at higher levels of the judiciary. Hopefully the obstinate judicial impulse to innovate will give way to the prudent principal of the prevailing historical understanding of marriage." The political and judicial football that has become the campaign for same sex marriage in California is not merely a constitutional case of individual, civil, equal, or human rights. It must also be seen through the lens of the natural law. Bishop Soto's pastoral statement and the Catholic Church teaching on marriage, is grounded in the natural law and our faith belief that God created the covenant of marriage as a union between one man, and one woman. Thus Catholic-Christian morality and sacramentality, defines Marriage, as a sacred bond of Love between a husband who is male, and a wife, who is female. That makes same sex marriage contrary to the natural law and the consistent teaching and practice of Catholic-Christianity. As Bishop Soto noted the struggle to maintain the prevailing historical understanding of marriage and restore it firmly in the California Constitution will continue on to a three judge Appeals panel of the 9th District Federal Court, and depending on the outcome of their deliberations, ultimately to the United States Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court is now comprised of 4 conservative Justices, 4 liberal Justices, and 1 moderate Justice. The 1 moderate justice, who will likely be the swing, and determining vote, deciding the constitutionality of Proposition 8, and the issue of same sex marriage in the United States of America, is Justice Anthony Kennedy, who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Ronald Reagan. Justice Kennedy is a native Sacramentan, a Catholic, and life long member of Holy Spirit Parish in Land Park. Some legal analysts responding to Judge Walker's overturning of Prop. 8, on Wednesday, are expressing the opinion that the arguments Judge Walker made in his decision were aimed at the vote of Justice Kennedy, when the time comes for the Supreme Court of the United States to say yes, or no, to the constitutionality of same sex marriage. Bishop Soto, the California Catholic Conference of Bishops, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, will all be highly involved in teaching, advocating for, and promoting, the valudity and historical understanding of the essential natural law teaching that does not allow for the marriage of same sex couples..........In The Name Of Jesus We Pray, Fr. Troy

***For the entire text of Bishop Soto's statement in English or Spanish, go to the web page, www.diocese-sacramento.org/