COMMONWEAL on Same-Sex Marriage and the California Supreme Court's Decision

The entire editorial is here.  Here's an excerpt:

While the Catholic Church’s opposition to legalizing same-sex unions or marriage is unambiguous, the views among Catholics vary widely, with some surveys showing self-described Catholics to be more accepting of homosexuality than members of many other religious groups. The argument that extending the right to marry to same-sex couples will strengthen what is best and most loving in those relationships by encouraging fidelity, stability, and the care of children, and thus strengthen the community as a whole, is increasingly persuasive to many. Increasingly less persuasive to many Catholics and non-Catholics alike are the church’s condemnations of “intrinsically evil acts.” Clearly, the church must find better ways to bring its legitimate concerns about the erosion of traditional sexual morality and marriage into the public debate.

These are difficult issues, where people of good will often disagree, and where generational differences can be startling. Whether one favors or opposes civil unions or same-sex marriage-or favors one and not the other-the democratic nature of the debate makes prudential judgments unavoidable. As the church has long recognized, not everything that is immoral should be illegal. In many cases, prohibiting or criminalizing activities whose morality is deeply disputed is a mistake. In a democracy, people govern themselves. In that light, it is also a mistake for the courts to foreclose the relatively new public debate about same-sex marriage. Democratic cohesion is difficult to sustain when one side or the other feels its concerns have not been fairly heard. When it comes to how a society defines civil marriage, the voices of citizens, not judges, should be decisive.