VATICAN CITY, JUNE 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican agency Fides has united the voices of bishops worldwide in support of the protest in Madrid against the project to recognize homosexual «marriage» in Spain.
«The Family Does Matter» is the motto of the rally this Saturday organized by the Spanish Forum of the Family, a non-confessional group representing more than 4 million families.
The protest is against a policy that would legalize same-sex «marriage» and allow same-sex couples to adopt children. The Senate is expected to approve the bill next week.
Through Fides, representatives of the Church in India, Peru, Nepal, Congo, Bangladesh, Madagascar, the Solomon Islands, Mongolia, Pakistan and South Korea have all expressed their solidarity with the pro-family rally.
Fides is also reporting statements of support for the event from Muslims and Jews in Spain.
Spanish cardinals and bishops have said that they will attend the protest, which has the support of the episcopal conference.
«Scarcely believable»
«Tragic is the only word with which I can describe the news that the Spanish government intends to change the law on marriage,» said a statement from Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow.
«It is scarcely believable how something like this can even be considered in a Catholic country, such as Spain, with an age-old Christian tradition, where the Gospel has been proclaimed for centuries and a nation which has given the Church so many mystics,» the archbishop told Fides.
«I therefore give full support to the efforts of Spain’s Catholic laity and bishops,» he said.
The archbishop continued: «What is at stake here is the family as God created it.
«We must ask ourselves what sort of upbringing can be guaranteed to children who are denied the right to have a mother and a father? What will be the future of society?»
