Church Documents About Defense of Marriage

The following is a selection of documents related to the Church's teaching on marriage, the family, and the person.

Statements of the USCCB

• Pastoral Letter Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan (2009)
• Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, Statement on behalf of the Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage concerning the Maine November 3rd vote on marriage (November 4, 2009)
  
• Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, Video A Message in Defense of Marriage (2008)
  
• Archbishop José Gomez, Video Un Mensaje en Defensa del Matrimonio (2008)
  
• Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination: Guidelines for Pastoral Care (2006)
  
• USCCB Administrative Committee, Statement Promote, Preserve, Protect Marriage (issued 2003; reaffirmed 2006)
  
• Support for Federal Marriage Amendment:
  

• Bishops' Administrative Committee Reaffirms Support For Federal Marriage Amendment (March 15, 2006)
  Bishop Wilton Gregory's Statement in Support of the Federal Marriage Amendment (July 6, 2004)

• Between Man and Woman: Questions and Answers About Marriage and Same-Sex Unions (2003)

• Bishop Wilton Gregory, Statement welcoming CDF document (July 31, 2003)

• USCCB Committee on Marriage and Family and Committee on Domestic Policy, Statement on Same-Sex Marriage (July 1996)
  

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Catechism of the Catholic Church (2nd ed., 2000)

• Male and Female He Created Them (CCC, nos. 369-373 and CCC, nos. 2331-2336)
  
• The Sacrament of Matrimony (CCC, nos. 1601-1666)
  
• Nature of the Family; Family and Society (CCC, nos. 2201-2213)
  
• Chastity and Homosexuality (CCC, nos. 2357-2359)
  
• The Love of Husband and Wife (CCC, nos. 2360-2379)

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Second Vatican Council

• Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes (December 7, 1965): see nos. 47-52

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Pope Benedict XVI

• Encyclical Caritas in veritate (June 29, 2009): see nos. 15, 44, and 51 (on the need for a human ecology).
  
• Address to Roman Curia (December 22, 2008): see references to human ecology and marriage as a sacrament of creation.
  
• For a compilation of selections from Pope Benedicts teaching on marriage and the family, see Family (USCCB, 2009)

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Pope John Paul II

• Letter to Women (June 29, 1995): see nos. 7-8
  
• Letter to Families (February 2, 1994): see nos. 6-12 and 17
  
• Apostolic Letter Mulieris dignitatem (August 15, 1988): see nos. 6-7
  
• Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris consortio (November 22, 1981): see nos. 3, 45-46, and 81

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Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

• Letter on the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World (May 31, 2004)
  
• Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons (July 31, 2003)
  
• Some Considerations Concerning the Response to Legislative Proposals on the Non-Discrimination of Homosexual Persons (July 23, 1992)
  
• Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (October 1, 1986)

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Pontifical Council for the Family

• Family, Marriage and De Facto Unions (July 26, 2000)
  
• Declaration regarding the Resolution of the European Parliament dated March 16, 2000, making de facto unions, including same sex unions, equal to the family (March 17, 2000)

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Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church (Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, 2004)

• The Equal Dignity of All People and the Equality in Difference between Man and Woman (CSDC, nos. 144-148)
  
• Marriage and Family (CSDC, nos. 209-254)
•                  Importance of the family for the person (CSDC, nos. 212)
                   Importance of the family for society (CSDC, nos. 213-214)
                   Marriage as the foundation of the family (CSDC, nos. 215-218)
                   Sexual identity, difference, and complementarity (CSDC, no. 224)
                   Homosexual unions (CSDC, nos. 228-229)