Catholic Archbishop: Gay marriage will cause a 'national conflict of enormous proportions'

Washington, D.C. - Archbishop Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote a letter to President Barack Obama this week, demanding a meeting to talk about gay marriage.

Dolan said that the Obama Administration's unwillingness to defend the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act in court will "precipitate a national conflict between Church and State of enormous proportions and to the detriment of both institutions."

Dolan said that Catholics are not anti-gay, just pro-marriage.

"We as Bishops of the Catholic Church recognize the immeasurable personal dignity and equal
worth of all individuals, including those with same-sex attraction, and we reject all hatred and unjust treatment against any person," he wrote.

He's also not happy that President Obama has compared homophobia to racism.

"It is particularly upsetting, Mr. President,
when your Administration, through the various court documents, pronouncements and policies identified in the attached analysis, attributes to those who support DOMA a motivation rooted in prejudice and bias," he said. "It is especially wrong and unfair to equate opposition to redefining marriage with either intentional or
willfully ignorant racial discrimination."