Irish same-sex marriage vote resonates in Riverdale

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Growing up as a homosexual in County Kerry, Ireland, was a trying time for Mary Courtney, the singer and guitarist who enjoys a loyal following at An Beal Bocht Café today. She was skeptical ahead of the May 26 Irish referendum on same-sex marriage — the first national ballot in the world on the issue. 

"I thought it wouldn't go through," she said on a recent afternoon at the West 238th Street pub. "I thought the church still had a chokehold. But I was absolutely delighted beyond belief." 

In the wake of last week's historic ballot, in which 62 percent of Irish voters decided in favor of same-sex marriage, reactions here mostly matched the ex-pat and celebrity-driven social media frenzy of pride in the Irish homeland. 

At local Catholic churches, leaders adhered to the Vatican line of decrying the referendum. 

After an official Vatican statement called the outcome a "defeat for humanity," Fr. Brian McCarthy of St. Margaret of Cortona Church on Riverdale Avenue insisted that the Pope's views are in line with catholic teaching. 

"We don't hate homosexuals," he said. "We have respect for all people. We can disagree over marriage, but that isn't prejudice; it's based on the teachings of Jesus — marriage is between a man and a woman." 

In 2013, the Holy Father famously said of homosexuality, "Who am I to judge?" But his policies on same sex marriage have not changed since 2010, when he declared his native Argentina's approval of same sex marriage as a "destructive attack on God's plan."

The recent vote in Ireland suggested an increasing indifference to the church's teachings as a whole. As evangelical Catholics and Protestants were distributing more than 90,000 anti-gay marriage pamphlets around the country, 68,000 new voters were signing on to the electoral register. Many of these voters were part of the millennial generation (those between 18 and 34) that the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference in 2011 found were beyond the church's reach, with only 20.8 percent attending Mass.

Fr. John Knapp of St. Gabriel's Church on Arlington Avenue views the Irish vote as the latest version of the debate between religious and secular worldviews.

Ireland, same sex marriage, Mary Courtney, Karen F. McCarthy
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