Benedict Warns US Bishops on Gay Marriage

With gay marriage being put on the ballot in at least five states, Pope Benedict XVI warned bishops visiting from the United States of "powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage," reports the BBC. He also called premarital sex and couples living together unmarried "damaging to the stability of society" and "gravely sinful," for good measure.

Benedict did acknowledge that for many young people today, the church's position on marriage and sex can seem "countercultural," but told the bishops that marriage and family should be "defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature. ... Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage." (More Pope Benedict XVI stories.)