El Pais: [Cardinal] Rouco supports a referendum on gay marriage - The Marriage between homosexuals "goes against all civilizations"

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/Rouco/partidario/referendum/matrimonio/gay/elpepisoc/20081108elpepisoc_6/Tes

Original Title: Rouco, partidario de un referéndum para el matrimonio gay - Las bodas entre homosexuales "van contra todas las civilizaciones"

8.11.8

Translated by Google Translate with some minor corrections

Three years after the adoption of the law on homosexual marriage in Spain, the church continues to campaign against it. Now, taking advantage of the rejection by referendum of marriage between same sex in California (USA), the president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, argues that "it would have been nice" to do the same in Spain. In statements to the chain Cope, Rouco said Thursday night that a similar "help to better understand the profound reality of the conscience of the most critical aspects in the life of Spaniards."

"This way of dealing with the conception of marriage," said Rouco on the radio of the bishops, "in which sexual difference plays no role runs counter to civilization. Not only the Catholic, but of all civilizations" . For the president of the EEC and Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, marriage between persons of the same sex "has to do with a conception of man who would be rectified."

The statements of Rouco yesterday were answered by the State Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB). The association believes that the "democratic spirit" of the cardinal-to claim that he was a necessary pre-referendum "should also be accommodated in the Church." The majority of the population supports gay marriage, according to surveys of the CIS. The FELGTB argues that such consultations should also serve to "vote on measures such as what relationship should exist between Church and State." The current, saying "it is rejected by the majority."

The president of the EEC used his speech in Cope to criticize the course of education for citizenship, since this course compulsory for all communities. "This subject in its content is not compatible with the Spanish Constitution in terms of positive law," he said. "Nor with a good understanding of ethical duty of parents to choose religious and moral education of their children," he added. For Rouco Varela, who will meet this weekend with more than 2,000 young Catholics in Madrid, "many parents believe in conscience that their children should not go to this subject."

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Background for the Readers:
Antonio María Rouco Valera is a Spanish Cardinal. He is the head of the Catholic Church in Madrid and is the President of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.