Benedict XVI blasts same-sex ‘marriage’ legislation as a ‘deformation of conscience’Mankind, ‘in the mode of male and female, is ordered to procreation, as well as the fact that the community of male and female and the openness to the transmission of life determine the essence of what is called marriage.’Benedict argued that “the legalization in 16 European states of ‘homosexual marriage’” has led to a “deformation of conscience” that extends beyond the secular realm, having “penetrated deeply into the world of marriage in sectors of the Catholic people.”As such, “the issue of marriage and the family has taken on a...