Leftists Push Italy
to Follow Ireland on Same-Sex Marriage
by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D. 24 May 2015
“A changing Ireland makes the scene of our own
hypocritical and petty politics even sadder. Wake up, Italy!”
Nichi Vendola, the chairman of the
Italian socialist party “Left Ecology Freedom,” is just one member of the
Italian left taking advantage of Ireland’s gay marriage vote
to push for its acceptance in Italy, trying to shame Italians into following
the example of the Emerald Isle.
Though Ireland abandoned its Catholic roots many
years ago, the new mantra among the Italian left is: “If ‘Catholic’ Ireland can recognize gay marriage, so can we.”
Pressure is already mounting on other European states to
follow Ireland’s example in embracing same-sex marriage, even if the vote is
barely a day old. Once a conservative, Catholic nation, Ireland is being held
up as an example of how to overcome one’s hidebound past to emerge into the
bright light of modernity.
The world has received “a lesson in civilization from
Catholic Ireland,” said Vendola, adding that Ireland’s vote represented “a
victory for the beauty of the right to have rights, of love over prejudice and
of freedom over obscurantism.”
Meanwhile, the Italian President of the Chamber of Deputies,
Laura Boldrini stated that “we have received an extra boost from Ireland. It is
time for Italy
to adopt a law on civil unions. Being European means recognizing
rights,” she said.
Ireland has turned into the perfect storm of gay marriage
legislation for political and cultural liberals, since in many people’s minds
it is still associated with backward Catholic farmers who bless themselves
every time the Pope sneezes.
That was then (maybe), this is now. For decades the Irish
have been rebelling against their Catholic past, eager to prove to the world
that they are not only modern, but “a beacon of equality and liberty to the
rest of the world,” as Ireland’s openly gay Minister for Health Leo Varadkar put
it.
While Ireland was once known as the world’s most Catholic
country, attendance at weekly Mass has been on a steady decline for years.
“People are rejecting something they don’t even remember,” says Malachi
O’Doherty, whose 2008 book, Empty Pulpits: Ireland’s
Retreat from Religion, chronicled the impact of secularization
on Ireland.
Euphoric after leaving behind their traditionalist
past, many Irish see the marriage referendum as a definitive break with
Catholicism and a sign of “pioneering leadership,” as Fine Gael politician Enda
Kenny described the vote. Ireland’s reinvented liberal identity is all the more
powerful because of its conservative past, and will be “heard loudly across the
living world,” according to Kenny.
But despite Ireland’s need to assert its place in a
post-Enlightenment world, Italy and the rest of Europe must still wrestle with
a social arrangement whose real social effects—especially on children—are still largely
unknown, and what is known doesn’t look good.
David Quinn, the director of the Iona Institute, who spearheaded the campaign
against gay marriage in the recent referendum, spoke with Breitbart News about
the social backdrop to the vote.
“Ireland is still going through a tremendous backlash
against its Catholic past,” said Quinn. “The only lesson to be learned for the
rest of Europe is not to overreact to your history.”
Quinn also noted that while the Irish think they have
entered into a new age of free thinking, they have merely switched their
unquestioning allegiance. “Earlier,” he said, “there was an iron consensus in
favor of Catholic belief in Ireland; now there is an iron consensus against the
Church. We have gone from a homogenously Catholic culture to a homogeneously
anti-Catholic culture, all walking in lockstep.”
Whether it is bravery or foolhardiness that has led Ireland
to rush into gay marriage must still be weighed by nations who share Ireland’s
Catholic past, but may not share its need to demonstrate its anti-Catholic
credentials.
Catholic
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Catholic Relief Services.
Note: George Soros is the
founder & chairman for the Open
Society Foundations, and was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Aspen Institute (think tank),
the International Rescue Committee,
and the Robin Hood Foundation.
Giulio
Tremonti is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was
the minister of economy & finance for Italy.
Madeleine K.
Albright is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and an
overseer at the International Rescue
Committee.
Jean Kennedy
Smith is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, and was a U.S. ambassador for Ireland.
Clifford S.
Asness is a director at the International
Rescue Committee, was a leadership council member for the Robin Hood Foundation, and supported same-sex marriage in New York.
Tom
Brokaw is an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, was a director at the Robin Hood Foundation, and an anchor for the NBC Nightly News.
Brian Williams
is a director at the Robin Hood
Foundation, and an anchor (suspended) for the NBC Nightly News.
Jeff
Zucker was an executive producer for the NBC Nightly News, is a director at the Robin Hood Foundation, and the president of CNN Worldwide.
CNN Worldwide
is a division of CNN.
Walter
Isaacson was the chairman & CEO for CNN, and is the president & CEO for the Aspen Institute
(think tank).
Giulio
Tremonti is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and was
the minister of economy & finance for Italy.
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