Cardinal criticizes Mexico’s high court for upholding law allowing gay marriages in capital

Cardinal: High court wrong to uphold gay marriage

MEXICO CITY — Cardinal Norberto Rivera sharply criticized Mexico’s Supreme Court on Sunday for upholding a law allowing homosexuals to marry in the capital, calling the ruling “aberrant” and “immoral.”

The Roman Catholic archbishop said it was wrong to go against Christian doctrine that recognizes only marriages between a man and a woman.

“The church cannot fail to call evil evil,” Rivera said in a statement.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court on an 8-2 vote upheld the constitutionality of gay marriages in Mexico City under a law passed by the state legislature. The federal government had sought to nullify the law.

The Federal District is the only part of Mexico that allows gay marriages. The city government said last week that since 320 same-sex couples had married since March, 173 of them male and 147 female.

Rivera said homosexuals have suffered abuses from the broader society, but argued that allowing same-sex marriages is not the way to try to atone for such injustices.

He called same-sex unions “inherently immoral,” saying they “distort the nature of marriage raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament.”