Bishop Martin de Elizalde of Nueve de Julio, Argentina said last week the passage of a law allowing same-sex “marriage” by the Senate has put the country “in a new and unexpected situation.”
 
Bishop Elizalde said the passage of the law should lead Argentineans to question “the seriousness of the gospel commitment we claim to have.  The coarse political context cannot justify what has happened.”
 
“As time goes on certain aspects will be clarified and new ways of behaving in society will be established,” he ventured.  “The consequences will become evident in many areas, perhaps not right away, but there will certainly be repercussions in family life and in the formation of young people,” the bishop warned.
 
“There is something that does not change and cannot change, and that is the law of God and the voice of conscience which is in every person.  As believers, we must give a testimony of coherence and fidelity, without allowing ourselves to be influenced by the dominate, yet deceitful, trends of the day, which have no basis in a truly creative program oriented towards the comprehensive good of persons,” the bishop said. 

“We must maintain our appreciation and adherence to the family as God has willed it and as it was established in the natural order,” he insisted.
  
“The Church’s doctrine on marriage and the family and on sexuality does not alter or deform what nature itself provides, in the life and development of each free person invested with intelligence,” Bihsop Elizalde continued.  “On the contrary, it enlightens us based on the faith and constitutes an aid for its realization in this life … ” he said.
 
The bishop underscored that Argentineans have been given a mission by God to bear witness to the truth about the family and marriage.  “May God keep us united and fervent, and may our families continue to be a sign of His presence among us,” said.