Archbishop Joseph Kurtz (Screen Capture)

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has sent a letter to Sen. Mike Lee (R.-Utah) endorsing his First Amendment Defense Act, which would prevent the government from discriminating against people and organizations because they believe marriage is between one man and one woman.

In the letter, the bishops’ flatly declare that human beings can discern the true definition of marriage through the application of “right reason” alone.

“The teaching of the Catholic Church is based on both faith and reason,” say the bishops. “Using right reason, one can know that given the nature of the human person, created as male and female, marriage is the union of one man and one women. The leadership of our Church will continue to promote and protect the natural truth of marriage as foundational to the common good.”

The bishops thanked Sen. Lee for introducing the bill. The USCCB letter was signed by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, who chairs the USCCB Committee on Religious Liberty and Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, Nebraska, who chairs the USCCB Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

“What an individual or organization believes about the traditional definition of marriage is not – and should never be – a part of the government’s decision-making process when distributing licenses, accreditations, or grants,” Lee said in a statement. “And the First Amendment Defense Act simply ensures that this will always be true in America – that federal bureaucrats will never have the authority to require those who believe in the traditional definition of marriage to choose between their living in accordance with those beliefs and maintaining their occupation or their tax status.”