EUROPE/SPAIN - June 18 Pro-family demonstration was only the ‘beginning” of a massive unprecedented family movement. Many other similar events to defend true marriage and the family could follow if government refuses to meet the demands made.

Madrid (Fides Service) - “This is not the end, this is the beginning of a new unprecedented social movement, the family movement” said Benigno Blanco, Vice president of the Spanish Family Forum said with regard to the pro-family demonstration in Madrid on Saturday 18 June. The organisers say the event was a complete success organised in only 50 days with no help whatsoever from public or private institutions and funded entirely by generous participants.
A massive participation to affirm the value of marriage, the family and to defend the right of a child to have a father and a mother. Josep Mirò, President of E-Cristians, in his intervention said “in recent months Europe, indeed the world has watched Spain with disbelief. In the rest of Europe and the rest of the world marriage is a union between a man and a woman, as it is affirmed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Marriage of homosexuals is illegal in 189 of the 191 countries which belong to the United Nations Organisation”. So one may ask: “is the world wrong ?”. As Benigno Blanco said, “the family is society’s principle treasure, it is its foundation, its corner stone. In the attempt to destroy the institution of the family no one has ever gone this far before”, but now “the family has woken up, it will not sleep anymore, it will no longer be silent!”.
Seeing the success of the demonstration and the unanimous refusal on the part of Spain’s families to two laws (one to legalise homosexual ‘marriages’ and the other to relax laws on divorce),Eduardo Hertfelder, President of the Institute for Family Policy (IPF), called on the government two withdraw both Bills and start dialogue to settle these difficult matters in a serious and rigorous manner to avoid causing a permanent rupture in society. The National Catholic Confederation of Parents and School Children Parents (CONCAPA) urged the Prime Minister to withdraw the law because after this massive demonstration “it can no longer truthfully say the law has the support of the majority of the people of Spain”.
For its part the Spanish Family Union said the demonstration was only the ‘beginning’ and that there could be many others to defend true marriage and the family if the government fails to meet the demands made.
The organisers also complained about false reports on the demonstration, such as the manipulation of the number of participants 1.5 million (the government said only 166,000 people took part) or that the demonstration was against homosexuals with offensive anti-homosexual banners. It was said that with this law Spain would be at the European level when, on the contrary countries which recognise these unions do not equal them to marriage nor do they allow homosexual couples to adopt children. With regard to support for the demonstration the organisers say they encountered all sorts of obstacles. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 22/6/2005, righe 37, parole 517)