A senior Vatican official has dubbed Ireland's robust nod to same-sex marriages as a "defeat for humanity."
While addressing the press in Rome, Vatican's Secretary of State,Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said he was "deeply saddened" by the result of the referendum, and added that the church must take account of this reality, the Guardian reports.
The statement made by the Vatican's top diplomat, seen as second only to the pope in the church's hierarchy, represents the most damning critique of the Irish vote by a senior church official till date.
Ireland became the first country to legalise same-sex marriages by popular vote after a referendum found that 62 percent countrymen were in favour of marriage equality.
