The New York Times is reportingthat seven Catholic cardinals were among more than 50 religious leaders who signed a petition asking for a constitutional amendment blocking same-sex marriage.

I seem to recall a joke making the rounds in pro-life circles two decades ago that the kiss of death for the Human Life Amendment was when the bishops came out in favor of it...:-)

I would observe that attempts to amend the Constitution that have arisen out of the contemporary "culture wars" have generally faced an uphill climb. The ERA was defeated, as was the Human Life Amendment and the amendment to ban flag burning. While the views of the American people on these issues varied, I think there was a solid and durable majority who thought that amending the Constitution was not the way to address the problems at issue. I suspect that will be true in this case as well.