Michael KellyThe same-sex marriage referendum result was “a defeat” that highlights a gap between the Church and modern society, the Vatican daily newspaper has said.
“The margin between the ‘yes’ and the ‘no’ votes was too large not to be accepted as a defeat. It was the result of high voter turnout, notably among young people,” L’Osservatore Romano said in an editorial.
The semi-official paper of the Holy See described the result as “a challenge for the whole Church” and spoke of “the distance, in some areas, between society and the Church”.
The paper quotes Georges Cottier, the theologian-emeritus to the Papal Household as saying one cannot understand the victory of the ‘yes’ side in the referendum “without considering the scandal of paedophilia in the clergy that rocked the Irish Church”.
Cardinal Cottier said he believed that the scandals “deeply influenced” Irish peoples’ attitudes towards the Church on the referendum.