Leading Irish official calls for same-sex marriage
CWN – July 05, 2012
Ireland’s deputy prime minister is calling upon the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.
“I believe in gay marriage,” said Eamon Gilmore, who also serves as minister for foreign affairs and trade. “The right of gay couples to marry is, quite simply, the civil rights issue of this generation, and, in my opinion, its time has come.”
“It is not the role of the State to pass judgement on who a person falls in love with, or who they want to spend their life with,” he added. “And there are other issues which, I believe, will challenge us to reassess the interconnectedness of the views of one Church, with the laws of the country.”
“As a country, our first century of independence was dominated by the nationalist debate about Irish freedom,” he continued. “Let our second century be defined by a concept of freedom that is universal. A concept of freedom that is not afraid of difference, or of change. In short, the freedom of Irish citizens to realize their own happiness, in their own way.”
Additional sources for this story: See www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=14821