Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco is pictured after an interview in Rome June 26. Speaking hours after U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8, Archbishop Cordileone said he was
Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco is pictured after an interview in Rome June 26. Speaking hours after U.S. Supreme Court rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act and California's Proposition 8, Archbishop Cordileone said he was “very dis appointed and very worried about the future of our country and the future of our children.” The high court ruled in separate 5-4 opinions that DOMA is unconstitutional and sent a challenge to Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative barring same-sex marriage, back to lower courts. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

ROME (CNS) — The “future of our democracy” is “very, very worrisome,” U.S. Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone said in reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court's June 26 rulings striking down the federal Defense of Marriage Act and refusing to rule on the merits of a ban on same-sex marriage in California.

The court high court remanded the California case to lower courts on the grounds that the individuals who defended the law in court lacked legal standing to do so. Archbishop Cordileone of San Francisco, chairman of the U.S. bishops' Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, spoke to Catholic News Service in Rome the day the court handed down its two decisions. He was there to receive his pallium from Pope Francis in a ceremony June 29, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The pope will present palliums to archbishops named in the past year. The woolen stole signifies an archbishop's authority over the Christian community. In addressing the court's refusal to rule on the merits of a challenge to California's Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative barring same-sex marriage, Archbishop Cordileone noted that 7 million voters in California voted for the proposition and “many of them invested a lot of hard work and a lot of time and lots and lots of money against seemingly insurmountable odds.”