Spain Vows to Crack Down on Rebels to Gay Marriage Legislation

Spain has pledged to crack down on all mayors that rebel and refuse to allow homosexuals in their controlled region to marry. The announcement comes after several Spanish mayors stated that they will not marry homosexual couples even if a bill making its way through the parliament legalises gay nuptials.

Spain's Deputy Prime Minister had earlier warned that everyone in the country must comply with the bill. In addition the senior government official insisted that public figures must "apply the laws that government proposes and parliament approves."

However, the Head of the Pontifical Council on the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo criticised the proposals as "iniquitous" and urged the authoritative figures not to perform the wedding ceremonies for homosexual couples. So strict was Trujillo on his stance that he said that public figures should not follow this legislation even if it meant they would end up losing their jobs.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s government pushed the bill through the first stages to becoming a law that will also homosexuals to adopt children.

The Mayor of Valladolid, Javier Leon de la Riva was more forceful in his statement.

"If the upcoming law gives me the right to marry homosexuals, I will not exercise the right, nor will I delegate the authority to a subordinate," La Riva said.

"Notwithstanding," he added, "we’ll have to study what the rule is, never forgetting that in Spain there exists a conscientious objector clause."

However, Riva clarified, "I don’t care if these couples have the same rights as other citizens. What doesn’t seem right to me is that their union should be called a marriage."

The Mayor of Leon, Mario Amilivia, is in agreement with each of Rivas stances, according to La Razon.

In case any couple comes to Villarta, San Juan, seeking to marry, Ortega of Villarta will say to them, "I’m sorry. I’m a catholic before being a mayor. I can’t marry you." He adds, "As a practicing catholic, I have nothing but doctrine and I must heed what the new Pope says."

He continued, "What I’m not clear about is if the law will help us. In that case, I won’t have a choice but to delegate it to someone who will do it for me."

According to La Razon, the mayor of Socuellamos, Sebastian Carcia and the Mayor of Valdemoro, Jose Miguel Moreno Torres may also refuse to oversee such unions.

"There will always be someone within the city council who won’t have a problem in officiating these weddings. We won’t do it, but we don’t have a problem if someone else does it," they said.

"I’m a Catholic and I’ll do what my religion dictates," said Garcia. "The Catholic Church will never recognise as marriage a union that isn’t between a man and a woman."

However, in response to the outcry against the bill, Spanish socialists have stated they will clamp down heavily on those that refuse to abide by the new legislation.

Earlier this year, the late Pope John Paul II condemned the Spanish government for their new proposals to make divorce and abortion easier, for permitting stem-cell research and for reforming the ways in which state funds are distributed to the Catholic Church.