Word: kurtz
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...also spell out its position against abortion and in vitro fertilization. A draft of the document makes the case that marriage has been under assault for decades by secularists, feminists and others who see it as a social construction easily morphed into new shapes or ignored altogether. Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, who leads the U.S. church's efforts to prevent the legalization of same-sex marriage, was encouraged by the recent referendum in Maine. He told TIME over the the weekend, "In Maine, when people were asked to - and I would call it not so much a vote against human rights...
...Kurtz reiterated his church stands opposing the discrimination against and ill-treatment of homosexuals. "The church truly desires to be a defender of human rights," says the Archbishop. He also admits that many Americans do not share Catholic teachings about marriage. Nevertheless, he says the church believes that the "defense of truth," as God, nature and human history have revealed it, cannot be separated from the pursuit of justice. You can't have justice, he argues, if the truth of marriage between one man and one woman as a cornerstone of human society is denied. (See a pictorial history...
Some critics have faulted bishops who have argued that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights, for instance, should be denied Holy Communion. But Kurtz denies that the church was overreaching its bounds by taking a side in the controversy. "Our efforts in advocating for traditional marriage and our engagement in public policy debates, is entirely consistent with the law," he says. "We're not attempting to cross that line. But we do seek our rightful place in enunciating the principles we hold as essential as cornerstones for good society and the common good...
...activist stance, Kurtz says, is tied to Catholic anxieties about the state of marriage as a whole. "We are aware that some of the the statistics that were presented to us shows that, I am told from the 1980s to mid-2005, there's been a decrease of 40% to 50% of couples turning to the church for sacramental marriage," says the Archbishop. "We had an awareness of marriage becoming an increasingly private affair, whereas of course the church believes it is anything but a private affair. Obviously it is very important to the husband and wife who are getting...
...Kurtz's archdiocese is the state's largest and most influential in Kentucky, itself a bulwark in the opposition to gay marriage. In 2004, voters in the state overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment forbidding gay marriage, despite the fact that it was already illegal. In part because of that vote and subsequent ones like it, Kurtz and his fellow bishops will find considerable wind in their sails when they gather next week to discuss the new pastoral letter and hear Kurtz on the bishops' efforts to defend traditional marriage through education and through active engagement in the political process...