The Catholic Conference of Illinois has created a new Defense of Marriage department in response to the state’s passage of a civil-unions law.

Each Catholic diocese in the state will appoint advocates who seek to defend against “public-policy encroachments” and to promote the Church’s “love and solicitude towards marriage, families and children,” the conference said on Sept. 22.

Zach Wichmann, the conference’s director of government relations, heads the new department. He said that the new office reflects the bishops’ intention to keep the Church in the public square and in line with the Catholic faith’s mission. The department will advocate marriage as the proper home for human sexuality and explain how it expresses love and cooperation in God’s creative design.