Cardinal Dolan defends Catholic Church opposition to gay marriage

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, on Easter Sunday defended the Catholic Church’s stance on marriage, but suggested more could be done to reach out to gays and lesbians.

“God has told us that the way to happiness, that – especially when it comes to sexual love – that is intended only for a man and woman in marriage, where children can come about naturally,” said Dolan on ABC’s “This Week.”

{mosads}His comments come after the issue of same-sex marriage took center stage last week with the Supreme Court hearing two cases questioning the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.

Dolan, though, cautioned that the Church must “do better to see that our defense of marriage is not reduced to an attack on gay people.”

“I admit, we haven’t been too good at that.  We try our darndest to make sure we’re not an anti-anybody.  We’re in the defense of what God has taught us about – about marriage.  And it’s one man, one woman, forever, to bring about new life,” he added. “We’ve got to better… to try to take that away from being anti-anybody.”

Polls show a majority of voters now back same-sex marriage, with high support among the young. That shift has been mirrored on Capitol Hill, where last week a number of high-profile Democratic senators, including many from swing or traditionally GOP strongholds announced their support for gay marriage.

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) earlier this month also became the first GOP senator to support same-sex marriage, citing his openly-gay son for his new stance. 

But other prominent Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) have opposed gay-marriage.