COMMENTARY: Allowing Military Chaplains to Perform Same-Sex Marriage Violates DOMA

Last week, the U.S. Department of Defense adopted a new set of rules that allows military chaplains to perform same-sex "marriages" -- on or off military installations -- provided the ceremony is not prohibited by the state or local government in which it is being performed.

But Archbishop Timothy Broglio -- the head of the U.S. Catholic Military Archdiocese -- believes the ruling to allow same-sex marriages may be illegal, because it ignores the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which was signed into law by President Clinton 15 years ago and remains in effect.

DOMA defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, insofar as the federal government is concerned. Moreover, it does not recognize same-sex marriages.

President Obama -- who recently said he is "leaning" toward supporting same-sex marriage ceremonies -- has instructed his attorney general and other legal personnel in his administration to ignore DOMA, thus allowing same-sex marriages to be performed.

President Obama -- who has a law degree -- should know better than to instruct his legal staff to ignore DOMA or any other federal law. An individual -- even the president of the United States -- has no authority whatsoever to ignore a law, just because he is opposed to that law.

Military chaplains of the Catholic faith must not abide by the new Department of Defense ruling, because Catholic rules dictate that "no Catholic chaplain is authorized to perform a same-sex marriage under any circumstances."

The fact is that the Obama administration has crossed the line by allowing military chaplains to perform same-sex marriages. A more realistic compromise could have been for same-sex unions to occur in civil ceremonies. This venue would allow a justice of the peace -- rather than a priest or minister -- to perform such a ceremony.

President Obama's support of same-sex marriage is not the only anti-Christian position that he has taken since he became president. He has supported several other issues -- such as federal funding for abortions -- that are also anti-Christian.

In fact, the Catholic Bishops of the United States this week set up an Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, in an effort to combat Obama's anti-Christian actions. The bishops believe that they need to act now, in order to prevent President Obama from continuing to undermine Christian values and tradition.

With regard to allowing military chaplains to perform same-sex marriage ceremonies, this matter must be addressed in the federal courts, because it ignores DOMA -- the law in which the federal government defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman.