Vatican chief labels Irish gay marriage vote as ‘a defeat for humanity’

The Vatican’s secretary of state has called the Irish vote to legalize gay marriage a “defeat for humanity,” evidence of the soul-searching going on in Catholic circles after the predominantly Roman Catholic country overwhelmingly rejected traditional church teaching on marriage. Cardinal Pietro Parolin said he was saddened by the landslide decision, in which more than 62% of Irish voters said “yes,” despite the church teaching marriage is only between a man and woman. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Parolin referred to remarks by Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin that the results showed the church needed a “reality check” since it clearly wasn’t reaching young people with its message.

I don’t think you can speak only about a defeat for Christian principles, but a defeat for humanity.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin

The Catholic Church in Ireland has lost much of its moral authority following widespread sex abuse scandals and a general secularization of society. Martin himself called the vote part of a “social revolution” that required the church to look at whether it had “drifted completely away from young people.” Pope Francis hasn’t commented directly on the Irish results, but on Wednesday he stressed traditional church teaching on marriage as being between man and woman.

The man learns about women by learning about this woman, his fiancee, while the woman learns about men by learning about this man, her fiance.

Pope Francis, previously talking about the period of engagement

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