MADRID, July 6, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Spain’s new Socialist government has passed a preliminary resolution paving the way for the legalization of homosexual “marriage” by early next year, Justice Minister Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar said last week.
The legalization of homosexual “marriage” would make Spain the third European country to do so, after Belgium and the Netherlands. Massachusetts, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia have enacted similar laws in the US and Canada. In a bid to garner election support, Spain’s ruling Popular Party legalized civil unions for homosexuals in March, before losing the election to the Socialists, led by Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Zapatero pledged to legalize homosexual “marriage” the day he was raised to the office of Prime Minister of the country. He has also expressed a desire to ease Spain’s restrictions on abortion, and to end compulsory religious education in public schools.
In a meeting last month with Zapatero, Pope John Paul II criticized the new Spanish government’s intention to permit homosexual “marriage.” Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage: Spain to Allow Legally Recognized Homosexual Civil Unions http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2004/mar/04030203.html Read Zenit news coverage of the Pope’s meeting with Spain’s Prime Minister: http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=55669
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