A top Vatican official on Tuesday said
that he was saddened to see voters in Ireland approve a referendum
allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry in the mostly Roman
Catholic nation.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's
secretary of state, called the vote “a defeat for humanity.”
On Wednesday, Pope Francis reiterated
the church's opposition to marriage equality.
The Holy Father described marriage as
“the alliance of love between a man and a woman” during his
weekly address in St. Peter's Square. He also called on couples to
take their wedding vows seriously.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, an outspoken
opponent of marriage equality, called the vote “a defiance of God.”
“[T]his is a defiance of God,” he
told the Newman Society, Oxford University's Catholic Society, on
Tuesday. “It's just incredible. Pagans may have tolerated
homosexual behaviors, they never dared to say this was marriage.”
Last year, Burke, the former Archbishop
of St. Louis, led a successful campaign to strike out language
welcoming gays to the Catholic faith in a draft document about the
family. He's previously called gay relationships “evil” and
harmful to children.