Vatican decries Ireland gay marriage referendum ‘A defeat for humanity’

The Vatican has described the recent referendum in Ireland legalising gay marriage as a defeat for Christian principles and a defeat for humanity.

Vatican City Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is the Vatican’s second-in-command after Pope Francis, said this on Wednesday at an award ceremony.

Ireland, a traditionally Catholic country where homosexual acts were illegal until 1993, conducted a public vote on Friday on gay marriage in which the “Yes” camp won by 62.1 percent to 37.9 percent opposed to the vote.

Parolin said. “As the Archbishop of Dublin has said, the Church must take into consideration this reality, but in the sense that in my opinion it must redouble its commitment and make an effort to evangelise it.”

On his part, head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, said the Church was not opposed to recognising gay people’s “individual rights” but the unions could not be given rights similar to those enjoyed by married couples.

“Leaving terminology aside, it de facto equalises the legal status of homosexual unions to families based on the union between a man and a woman.,” he said.

Bagnasco noted that the Catholic Church had always seen homosexuality as a sin, and there was no suggestion that its stance may change. He added that when Pope Francis was still Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he opposed gay marriage laws, which Argentina introduced in 2010.

Meanwhile, Pope Francis has not made any direct comments on the Irish referendum.

On Wednesday, he reiterated the importance of marriage for the Catholic Church, addressing engaged couples in his weekly audience in St. Peter’s Square, Rome. He said, “The alliance of love between a man and a woman is an alliance for life.

“It cannot be improvised, it is not something you do from one day to the next.”