The Irish vote to allow gay marriage marked a “defeat for humanity”, said Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state and the Pope’s top lieutenant. The comments mark the highest-level reaction from the Catholic church to last weekend’s groundbreaking referendum. Cardinal Parolin was reflecting the unease and dismay the Irish result had triggered within the upper reaches of the Vatican, which opposes same-sex marriage and campaigned against its approval in Ireland. “I am very sad because of this result — the Church needs to strengthen its efforts to spread its message,” Cardinal Parolin said in Rome on Tuesday. “I...