Fighting To The Bitter End

USCCB fires preemtively on the Supreme Court's upcoming gay marriage and DOMA ruling:

In a bulletin insert delivered to parishioners around the nation, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops warned that the Supreme Court could be preparing to affirm marriage equality, and urged an outpouring of anti-LGBT sentiment and sermons to push back against the potential change.
“A broad negative ruling could redefine marriage in the law throughout the entire country, becoming the ‘Roe v. Wade’ of marriage,” the bulletin reads. “The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has joined with many other organizations in urging the Supreme Court to uphold both DOMA and Proposition 8 and thereby to recognize the essential, irreplaceable contribution that husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, make to society, and especially to children.”
It goes on to call for prayer, fasting and personal sacrifice to achieve the goal of keeping same sex couples from enjoying the same rights as other married couples, and urges parishioners join the church’s anti-LGBT “Fortnight for Freedom” events leading up to the 4th of July.
“Be a witness for the truth of marriage in word and action,” the conference ordered American Catholics. “Take advantage of opportunities to speak about marriage’s unique meaning in conversation with friends, family, neighbors or co-workers. Share the truth in love.”
The bulletin adds that, while “there are many ways to protect the basic human rights of all,” true Christians should oppose extending the rights of marriage to LGBT people because doing so “serves no one’s rights, least of all those of children.”

They've picked their hill, definitely not the right one, but they are prepared to defend it to the death.  Of all the things the Church could be doing, spending 2 weeks around the Fourth of July railing against birth control and gay marriage just doesn't seem like the best.  I would guess there are a lot of other things that could be done to engage with young Catholics and not highlight some of the Church positions that push those folks away.  DOMA is almost certainly dead in the water.  Proposition 8, if not overturned by the Court, will be removed by initiative in November or November 2014.  Illinois will probably legalize gay marriage soon, which, with California sooner or later, will leave at least 14 states allowing gay marriage.  This position will haunt the Church for many years to come.

Personally, I think the Church knows that social acceptance of homosexuality pretty much dooms the celibate priesthood in the United States to a slow demise.  In the past, a very sizable percentage of the seminarians were guys who knew they were homosexual but entered the priesthood because there was no other real socially acceptable path available.  Now, many of those men will just leave the Church, or go about their lives and ignore the Church on this issue.