Posted on 06/19/2005 4:24:49 PM PDT by NYer
MADRID, Spain — Making an unusually forceful foray into Spanish politics, the Roman Catholic Church led an enormous march yesterday to protest new legislation that would legalize marriage for gay couples.
Priests, nuns, adults and children from all over the country converged on Madrid, waving placards declaring, "Marriage equals Man and Woman."
Right-wing politicians also joined the demonstration, which was organized by a coalition of groups called the Forum for the Family. It represented the most coordinated protest to date against the agenda of Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The marriage measure is one of numerous social policies that have heightened tensions between the Catholic Church and the Zapatero government.
Zapatero plans to relax restrictions on abortion, divorce and stem-cell research. The Catholic Church receives public money in Spain, and Zapatero has proposed reducing the church's budget and extending financial benefits to additional religions.
Some on the left bemoaned what they saw as a potential throwback to the days of the dictator Francisco Franco, who outlawed homosexuality. The conservative church was closely allied with him and was extremely powerful until his death in 1975.

Protesters gather during the reading of a manifesto of the Gay and Lesbian Federation in defense of homosexual marriages in Madrid before a protest of the Catholic church and the rightist Popular Party (PP) against such weddings.(AFP/Pedro Armestre)
What a joy to hear the Church is taking these no-hopers on!

Thousands of people walk during a protest by the Catholic church against homosexual marriages in the Puerta del Sol square, in Madrid.(AFP/Pedro Armestre)
Vatican Document On Homosexual Unions
Homosexual unions are totally lacking in the biological and anthropological elements of marriage and family which would be the basis, on the level of reason, for granting them legal recognition. Such unions are not able to contribute in a proper way to the procreation and survival of the human race. The possibility of using recently discovered methods of artificial reproduction, beyond involving a grave lack of respect for human dignity,(15) does nothing to alter this inadequacy.
CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING PROPOSALS TO GIVE LEGAL RECOGNITION TO UNIONS BETWEEN HOMOSEXUAL PERSONS
Catholic Ping
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AMEN!!!!!!!!
Absolutely Fantastic!! Great!! I am so glad that the Church is standing TALL and leading the way in this battle against evil!!
later ping.
They just had a huge march in Poland against fetish "rights", too.
How come Americans aren't this outspoken?
Let these nitwit liberals allow the muslim population to takeover, and see how far they'll get with homo-lesbio marriages...lol
Homosexuality is truly evil in every sense.
BTTT
From the article: "The Catholic Church receives public money in Spain, and Zapatero has proposed reducing the church's budget and extending financial benefits to additional religions."
And there you have the tool that will be used against the church again and again. Governments will expect the church to bow low before their latest social engineering experiments...or else. The "or else" being that the government will go after the funding and, indirectly, the physical institutions of the church.
I wonder how frequently the church is put into a position of pulling it's punches in order to preserve the physical institutions of the church? Methinks that tax-free status comes with a very high pricetag at times.
Well, they may not be able to defeat the measure with the Socialists/Commies in charge, but at least they're fighting. Fight on, brothers!
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