Archbishop in row over ‘family life’ remarks

7 January 2004

MADRID –  The Archbishop of Madrid was embroiled Wednesday in a row over controversial comments on family life.

Archbishop Antonia Maria Rouco criticised new family values which he said were “characterized by a rupture in the love-life relation and reduce to hedonistic banality the experience of love between man and woman”.

The comments, delivered during a recent homily,  sparked a political row, with gay rights groups criticising Rouco for  his  “offensive” remarks.
 
A spokesman for the Statewide Network of Homosexual Christian Groups said: “These statements are not only offensive to same-sex couples, who therefore demand both civil and religious weddings, but also trivialise the nature of heterosexual marriage”.

According to the organisation, the archbishop should accept that society had changed.

 “Certain values have evolved with time and are now unquestionable, such as the abolition of slavery, women’s liberation, equal rights, non-discrimination against  homosexuals and their right to form a family,” said the spokesman.

The group added  that “life evolves and so do circumstances. Trying to enforce any kind of family unit is unrealistic, similar to the Church’s immovable belief that the Earth was the centre of the Universe”.

The archbishop was unavailable for comment.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news