EUROPE/SPAIN - "Marriage is a natural institution inscribed in the order of creation and prior to all religion ": declaration by Archbishop Gil Hellín

Burgos (Fides Service) - In an article, The Church defender of Man, Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellín of Burgos (Spain) a member of the Spanish Bishops’ Commission for Family and Life reflects on the question of same sex ‘marriage’ and he says “the Church does not intend to overlook society’s opinion of homosexuals or the social repercussions produced by the civil equalling of homosexual unions with marriage”, indeed the Church always reaches out to man to give a response with corresponds with the truth. “Response which is neither arrogant nor pretentious” because God made himself present in history and revealed to mankind its final destiny.
Thanks to this revelation the Archbishop said, “the Church knows that at the beginning the Creator created man, man and woman... to form a stable community oriented towards procreation”. “Therefore marriage is an institution inscribed in the order of creation and prior to all religion”. In this way the Church is defending a natural institution, marriage, whatever the beliefs of the couple.
The Church has always defended the human person and sought to offer the truth to believers and to all mankind. “The Church does not intend to shirk this duty even if she is misunderstood, misinterpreted, persecuted and attacked”. It should be no surprise that the Church reacts so strongly to defend the matrimonial pact and to oppose the ‘union’ of two men or two women. This is not out of contempt for people with homosexual tendencies or discrimination against them. The Church’s position “is that the basis of sociality lies in interpersonal communion of a man and a woman, in other words marriage”.
Archbishop Gil Hellín concludes by saying “the men and women of our day should realise that when the Church is attacked, they too are attacked”. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 3/5/2005, righe 25, parole 333)