STATEMENT
OF THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS OF NEW JERSEY ON We are profoundly troubled that the Legislature has passed and Governor McGreevey has signed this bill into law. The New Jersey Catholic Conference opposed this legislation because it attempts to cast aside marriage as our legal standard of legitimate cohabitation in order to give legitimacy to homosexual and heterosexual cohabitation outside of marriage. The wholesale acceptance of domestic partnerships discounts the fact that throughout history marriage --- the union of one man and one woman ---has offered societal stability by forming the physical, economic and cultural base for the orderly procreation, nurture and education of the next generation. Every major society has institutionalized a strong preference for marriage in its customs and laws. After all, at the very least, procreation is a necessary factor for a society’s continued existence. Homosexual and heterosexual cohabitation should not be granted the legal equivalence of marriage. New
Jersey Catholic Conference
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