Romanian Priests Push for Gay Marriage Ban

The days following Christmas have been a good opportunity for Orthodox priests accross Romania to encourage parishioners to back a campaign for a change to the constitution outlawing same-sex marriage.  

Dozens of people on Wednesday attending the Epiphany Day service at the cathedral in Timisoara, in western Romania, queued to sign the initiative, after their Bishop, or Metropolitan, encouraged them to do so during the Christmas mass.

Priests in the Iasi region in the east of the country, while blessing people's houses for the Epiphany Day - a common tradition in Romania - used the occasion to ask them to back amendments to the fundamental law, according to media reports.

Clergy want to gather at least 500,000 signatures in order to organise a referendum proposing that the constitution describe marriage as a consensual relationship between a man and a woman alone. Currently, the constitutional article use only the words "between spouses" when referring to the marriage partners.

While priests are busy campaining for the change, senior representatives of the Orthodox Church have not yet officially expressed support for the initiative.

However, Church leader Patriarch Daniel, in a message released on Tuesday, said that Orthodox believers "must support the Church's effort to protect the natural, traditional and universal family, and resist some new family models that consider the natural woman-man union only one model among others".

More than 85 per cent of Romania's population of 19.5 million belong to the Orthodox Church, which enjoys high levels of trust in the public.

Analysts say the issue is sensitive and will likely be debated more in the following months. "Romania is not yet ready to encourage...