Mexicans flood the capital to defend marriage – with Pope Francis' blessing

Mexico City, Mexico, Sep 26, 2016 / 13:15 pm

Some 400,000 people filled the streets of Mexico City on Saturday to protest the Mexican government's attempt to redefine marriage as anything but a union between one man and one woman.

Juan Dabdoub Giacoman, president of the Mexican Council of the Family, which helped organize the event, told CNA on Sept. 10 that the march was "historic" and an "example of the awakening of Mexico."

"It is a march to express to politicians and leaders of the country that this is really what Mexican society is searching for, which is not what gender ideology and the international LGBT movement is promoting."
 
After Mass on Sept. 25, Pope Francis voiced his support of the Mexican bishops' role in supporting the march, and their efforts for society "in favor of family and life, which at this time require special pastoral and cultural attention throughout the world."

The size and reach of the protests came as a surprise, even for event organizers, Dabdoub told CNA.

"Mexico really isn't characterized as being a country with great social participation," he explained. "Civically, we have been very apathetic and this awakening to the national level was shocking and surprised us."

"The family is the fundamental cell of society," Dabdoub said. "But what the president proposed not only fails to protect it, but shatters it."

"If we send our message and show that there are many people willing to go out and face what is happening now, we will have the opportunity for politicians to reverse the situation and begin to make the changes Mexicans need," he asserted.

Sept. 24 marked the country's second March for the Family. The march brought together more than 400,000 people to protest against efforts by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to push for same-sex marriage and to show the Mexican people's support for marriage and the family.

During this year's event, the organization announced that it would create a permanent civic movement in defense of the family and marriage. The organization also relayed their request to meet with President Peña Nieto in order to promote a Citizens' Initiative to strengthen the family and also to create the National Institute of the Family.

Mario Romo, director of Family Network, said after the event that "the response was overwhelming. This is a great gift that we all made to our country."

He also pointed to the existence of two citizens' initiatives "seeking to protect marriage between man and woman."

"One in the Senate, which came this year in in February with more than 250,000 signatures, and another in the Congress that 30,000 people went to present on September 1, and was signed by 50 federal deputies," he told CNA.

Romo encouraged Mexican citizens not to be afraid and to "say what they want and what they do not want. This is a sign that when we unite, citizens can be heard. "

In addition, Jose Enrique Guzman, counsel for ADF International in Mexico, highlighted the importance of defending the rights of parents to educate their children, "according to our convictions and principles."

"Our children have a right to be educated in a natural way. We all come from mom and dad, we all have the right to be educated by a father and mother, and to education in schools that conforms to our convictions and principles as Mexicans," Guzman told CNA.

"We are not marching to be homophobic, we are not marching to spit on someone nor to discriminate against someone. On the contrary, we are here to demonstrate and that in a democracy such as that of Mexico, biology is enforced and not an ideology," he said.