Tag Archives: ‘Same-Sex Marriage’

International group urges world leaders to reject same-sex marriage

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The International Organization for the Family (IOF) has urged religious, political, social, and civic leaders across the world not to yield to external pressures on same-sex marriage.

This appeal is contained in a statement issued by participants at the just concluded meeting of the organisation held in Cape Town, South Africa.

The statement tagged “Cape Town Declaration” reaffirmed the critical role of traditional man-woman marriage as the bedrock of civilisation.

According to the statement, ‘the family is the “first and primordial community” and that marriage is “the conjugal bond of man and woman.

“This definition is not a matter of preference or temperament or taste,” the signers declared, but “the heart of any just social order.”

“Throwing down the gauntlet to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trangender (LGBT) lobby, a thriving culture will firmly resist every push to redefine marriage to include: same-sex or group bonds, or sexually open or temporary ones.’’

The document also declared that the nature of marriage as between one man and one woman is “a truth that no government can change”.

It said that the declaration was a historic step in the global fight to preserve the truth about marriage.

It said forcing the agenda of same-sex marriage on nations by manipulation of foreign aid or the likes was a deplorable practice.

Those that signed the declaration pledged to work toward recovering the true understanding of marriage in places where governments had imposed an unwanted and unwarranted distortion of marriage upon society, it said.

“Beyond affixing their names to the document, signers also pledged to resist the rising cultural imperialism of western powers whose governments seek nothing less than the ideological colonization of the family.

“Bowing to no earthly power, using every just measure, we shall not falter or flag until the truth about marriage is embraced in our laws and honoured in our lands,’’ the document stated.

“The new text is reminiscent of the 2009 Manhattan Declaration, which garnered some 440,000 signatures in its first year.

“While the Manhattan Declaration targeted three points: the sanctity of life, the dignity of marriage and freedom of religion, the Cape-Town Declaration chose to focus specifically on marriage and the family.

“Our goal is to gain 2 million signatures on the Cape-Town Declaration within a year from today: December 11, the Universal Day of Human Rights,” the statement said.

This statement was released on Dec.10, the International Human Rights Day, to mark the anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly held in Paris on December 10, 1948.

Brian Brown, President of IOF, Emmanuel Badejo, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Oyo, Nigeria, as well as hundreds of other religious, political, social and civic leaders from other continents appended their signatures to the document .

Ireland Votes “Yes” To Legalize ‘Same-Sex Marriage’

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Ireland has voted to legalise same-sex marriage in a historic referendum that saw more than 62% of voters support the campaign to amend the country’s constitution.

Some 1.2 million people backed the “yes” campaign in the nationwide poll, which saw a voter turnout of more than 60%.

The referendum marks the first time a country has voted to approve same-sex marriage in a popular vote.

Only one of Ireland’s 42 constituencies voted “no”. The strongest support for the “yes” campaign was in Dublin, where support was over 70% in most districts.

Voters were asked whether they wanted to amend Article 41 of the 1937 Constitution by adding a new clause to a section titled The Family.

It asked them to support or reject a change to the 78-year-old document to make it read: “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”

The vote has not yet made same-sex marriage legal – new laws will now be put to the Irish parliament before the summer. It is expected that the first same-sex marriage ceremonies will take place before the end of the year.

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s health minister and the country’s first openly gay cabinet member, said: “Something has been awakened in the Irish people. “It was not just a referendum, it was more like a social revolution.”

Thousands of people packed into the upper courtyard at Dublin Castle to await the result and cheered as it was announced.

Same-sex marriage was legalised in England and Wales by the UK Parliament in July 2013 and in Scotland by the Scottish Parliament in February 2014.

The move puts renewed pressure on the devolved Northern Ireland government to follow suit after the executive said it has no intention of introducing legislation.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny paid tribute to the 60,000 young people who registered to vote in recent weeks and thousands of emigrants who came home from as far afield as Canada, the US and Australia to cast their ballots. “It’s a piece of history,” he said.

One of Ireland’s most senior Catholic clerics, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, said the church had to be aware that Ireland had changed.

He told RTE: “It’s a social revolution that’s been going on… I think really the Church needs to do a reality check.”

Credit: SKY NEWS