Cathal BarrySenior Vatican cardinal reacts to Irish same-sex marriage referendum result
A senior Vatican official has expressed his disappointment at the result of the same-sex marriage referendum here, labelling it a “defeat for humanity”.
Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the result had left him “feeling very sad”.
“I believe that we are talking here not just about a defeat for Christian principles but also about a defeat for humanity,” he said.
"The family remains at the centre and we have to do everything to defend it and promote it. Hitting it would be like taking the foundations away from the building of the future.”
Referencing Archbishop of Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, the senior prelate conceded that “the Church will have to take this reality on board in the sense of a renewed and strengthened evangelisation”.
Cardinal Parolin, who was appointed to the top Vatican position by Pope Francis in 2013, made his remarks on margins of a Centesimus Annus conference in the Vatican yesterday (Tuesday).