Religious leaders in Minnesota are calling on voters to pass a constitutional amendment protecting traditional marriage.

The amendment defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
    
Catholic Archbishop John Nienstedt said it is not meant to hurt or discriminate against anyone.

"(Marriage) predates any government, or in fact any religious denomination," Nienstedt said Tuesday in a news conference on the steps of the state Capitol building.

But Minnesotans United for All Families, a group that opposes the amendment, suggested there's more than one way to define marriage.

"I think what we saw today were a group of my brothers, Christian brothers, standing up stating one point of view, one way of looking at the marriage amendment," the Twin Cities Pioneer Press quoted Grant Stevensen, faith director at Minnesotans United.

"I disagree with it, and so do many, many people of faith -- Christians, Jews, Muslims," he said.

Archbishop Nienstedt disagreed.

"There can be only one truth about the human person," he said. "There cannot be one truth for believers and another truth for nonbelievers."