In urging the Argentine Senate to
reject a gay marriage bill, a Roman Catholic cardinal has warned that
the legalization of gay marriage is being driven by the Father of
Lies, Telam reported.
The Senate is expected to vote
Wednesday on a gay marriage bill approved in May by the country's
lower house, the Chamber of Deputies (la Camara de Diputados).
Last week, eight members of the Senate
General Law Committee joined its chairwoman, Senator Liliana Negre de
Alonso, in recommending the bill be rejected in the Senate.
Six committee members voted to
recommend for the bill's approval. Another five members advised
senators to reconsider a bill rejected in May by the lower house that
would recognize gay and lesbian couples with civil unions. That
legislation, however, bans gay couples from adopting.
The vote comes after the committee
aired out the issue during a series of debates in the country's
capital of Buenos Aires and in four provincial capital cities.
The measure enters the final round of
voting with a slight lead, 32 senators in favor and 30 against. But
10 senators remain undecided.
“Let's not be naïve, we're not
talking about a simple political battle; it is a destructive
pretension against the plan of God,” Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio wrote
in a letter calling on followers to join an anti-gay marriage rally
in Buenos Aires.
“We are not talking about a mere
bill, but rather a move by the Father of Lies which aims to confuse
and deceive the children of God.”
Bergoglio goes on to say that gay
adoption is discriminatory to children: “At stake are the lives of
many children who'll be discriminated against in being deprived of
the human growth that God wanted to be given through a father and a
mother.”