U.S. Catholic Bishops? Administrative Committee Calls for Protection of Marriage, September 10, 2003, The U.S. Bishops? Administrative Committee voted September 9 to give general support to a Federal Marriage Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The Catholic Church believes and teaches that marriage is a faithful, exclusive, and lifelong union between one man and one woman, joined as husband and wife in an intimate partnership of life and love. Marriage exists so that the spouses might grow in mutual love and, by the generosity of their love, bring children into the world and serve life fully.

Between Man and Woman: Questions and Answers about Marriage and Same-Sex Unions Issued by USCCB, November 12, 2003. Marriage comes from the loving hand of God, who fashioned both male and female in the divine image (see Gn 1:27).  A man "leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body" (Gn 2:24). The man recognizes the woman as "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Gn 2:23). God blesses the man and woman and commands them to "be fertile and multiply" (Gn 1:28).

Bishop Gregory Urges House To Support The Marriage Protection Amendment, September 29, 2004 Asserting that recent actions in various state courts and courthouses have placed the institution of marriage under serious attack and in grave danger, he declared: "The Catholic Bishops of the United States strongly believe that marriage is a basic human institution and that, though it is regulated by civil laws and church laws, it did not originate from either the church or state, but from God. Accordingly, the Bishops believe that neither church nor the state can alter the basic meaning and structure of marriage."

Bishop Gregory Letter to Senators on MPA, July 6, 2004

Statement on Same-Sex Marriage USCCB Committee on Marriage and Family Life, USCCB Committee on Domestic Policy, July 1996. Furthermore, we believe the natural institution of marriage has been blessed and elevated by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament. This means that Christian marriage is more than a contract. Because they are married in the Lord, the spouses acquire a special relationship to each other and to society. Their love becomes a living image of the manner in which the Lord personally loves his people and is united with them. Living a Christian sacramental marriage becomes their fundamental way of attaining salvation.