Church attacks gay marriage decision

The Catholic Church has criticized Tuesday's ruling by the Constitutional Court upholding the gay marriage law passed by the previous Socialist government of Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.

Juan Antonio Martínez Camino, spokesman and secretary general of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE), said during a book presentation in Madrid that it is the right of children to have "a father and a mother," no matter what a court dictates.

Earlier that day, the bishop of San Sebastián, José Ignacio Munilla, said he was disappointed by the judgment, saying that "there is no loyalty" to the Constitution regarding the Constitutional Court's decision to reject the appeal filed by the Popular Party (PP) seven years ago against the Civil Code's reform permitting gay marriage.

In comments to Europa Press moments before delivering a lecture in Zaragoza, Munilla said that with its ruling, the court "said that although the Constitution literally says that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, it challenged the mentality of Spanish society.

"I'm surprised to see that for a law to be constitutional or not, the [court] saw fit to decide on [the issue] of whether [gay marriage] is or not politically correct," he said. "So my question is: do we need a Constitution if in the end it is up to the Constitutional Court to determine what is political correctness?" he added.