U.S. Voters in 11 States OK Marriage Protection Amendments

An Issue That Shouldn’t Be Decided by Referendum, Says an Expert

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VATICAN CITY, NOV. 3, 2004 (Zenit.org).- On a day when Americans re-elected President George Bush, voters in 11 states easily approved marriage-protection amendments.

A Vatican Radio expert said that the news «should not be passed over in silence,» despite the fact that «these matters should not be submitted to referendum,» as the good and truth do not depend on majority votes.

Father Michele Simone, assistant director of the review Civiltà Cattolica, commented today on the approval of constitutional amendments that define marriage as the union between a man and a woman.

The proposals were approved, in many cases, by ample margins in Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Ohio, Utah and Oregon.

«This result should not be passed over in silence, which for Catholics and non-Catholics — as the polls show — is a positive event,» the priest explained.

Yet, Father Simone said that «we doubt that these matters should be submitted to referendum.»

«In any case, the decision is necessarily very positive,» he said of Tuesday’s voting. «The fact that the word ‘marriage,’ and its concept, is not applied to de facto homosexual unions, is already a significant step.»

The priest reacted negatively to the referendum held in California, which approved the funding of embryonic stem cell research, a proposal supported by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, with the pressures of biotechnology industries.

Such research implies the use and destruction of human beings in the embryonic stage, to be sacrificed for the sake of science and financial gain.

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