Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Madrid (Fides Service) - Benigno Blanco Jurist and vice president of the Spanish Family Forum FEF illustrates the situation in Spain with regard to the serious threats to marriage and the family posed by the approval of a law which equals same sex unions to marriage and what is being done to protect marriage
“In Spain a high percentage citizens get married there are 8.9 million marriages and only 20 per cent end in divorce - said Benigno Blanco -. Which means that 80 per cent last for a life time. Spain is the country in Europe with the highest rate of children born to married couples. And in Spain most unmarried couples get married when a child arrives. This means that the family is a valid institution in Spain. Although the law wants to make marriage inconsistent and unrecognisable, in real life people still believe in marriage”.
When asked about the battle against to new law introduced by the government Benigno Blanco said “the FEF has asked the Popular Party to appeal against the unconstitutionality of the law because we are convinced it is unconstitutional and we can prove it”. Appeals to judges have already been lodged. “By law a judge called to decide on the basis of a law which he considers unconstitutional may suspend the proceedings and appeal to the Constitutional Court to sentence whether or not the law is in keeping with the constitution”. In concrete there has already been a case in which jurist Denia (Alicante, Spagna) on 20 July refused to marry two women and appealed to the Court. Benigno Blanco said: “He is certainly not the only magistrate to question the constitutionality of the new law!”.
Another important point in the defence of marriage is freedom to object out of conscience “this is a constitutional right which can be exercised although not actually regulated by any specific law. This right flows from the Constitution. Any judge, mayor, local council member may exert the right to object out of conscience ” Blanco said. So with objection out of conscience and the fact that the law is unconstitutional the debite in Spain is open and the Constitutional Court will have to pass a sentence. I hope it will declare the law unconstitutional and therefore null”.
Benigno Blanco concluded with a remark on the present day situation which he says is “particularly exciting and stirring”: “We live in an epoch which is unprecedented and which calls everyone to be responsible. We are all responsible for the future. Seeing that everything is being questioned the responsility of every individual to defend his or her convictions is the value which will shape the future”. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 26/7/2005 - Righe 37, Parole 503)
