By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman, Latin America Correspondent
BUENOS AIRES, May 10, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Argentinean Chamber of Deputies, the nation's lower legislative house, has approved a bill to legalize homosexual 'marriage' in the Latin American country, the second most populous Spanish-speaking nation in South America.'
The bill, which passed last week with a vote of 125-109, will now pass to the nation's Senate.
The attempt to legalize gay “marriage” follows several incidents in Argentina in which homosexual couples have been permitted to register a “marriage,” despite explicit language in the nation's civil code defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Five homosexual couples have so far registered “marriages” with support from the judiciary in Buenos Aires and the province of Tierra del Fuego, but in several cases they have been reversed on appeal. Homosexualist groups have said that they will continue to appeal the cases up to the nation's Supreme Court.
Leaders of the Catholic Church, the only religion explicitly given the nation's “support” in the Argentinean constitution, denounced the passage of the bill in unequivocal language, warning through a spokesman that the legislation would “change the concept of society and the family in a revolutionary manner.”
“This would be a conceptual and cultural revolution with which the Church is not in agreement,” said Bishop Antonio Marinio to the Argentinean media.
According to the Diario de Cuyo newspaper, 10,000 Argentinean Catholics marched in protest of the proposed legislation and in favor of the institution of the family in the province of Cuyo on May 8.
Catholic leaders reportedly hope that the bill will be stopped in the Senate, which is more conservative than the Chamber of Deputies.
Related LifeSiteNews coverage:
Catholic Bishops Fight Back as Gay 'Marriage' Advances in Argentina
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042114.html
Battle of the Judges Continues in Argentina over Gay 'Marriage'
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10040801.html
Argentinian Judge Reverses Homosexual 'Marriage'
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10031011.html
Catholic Attorneys Fight Back Against Homosexual 'Marriage' in Argentina
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/mar/10030301.html
First “Gay Marriage” Registered in Argentina
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jan/10010603.html
Argentina Judge Orders Halt to Nation's First Gay “Marriage” On Eve of Ceremony
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09120108.html