“It is worrying that even the judges of the Constitutional Court have lost sight of the special nature of marriage as a union between a man and a woman. Indeed, unlike any other relationship, it is suitable for giving birth to and raising children, thereby ensuring generational continuity”. Christoph Schönborn, cardinal of Vienna and president of the Austrian Bishops, said this in an interview with Kathpress news agency in response to the ruling by which the Constitutional Court has in effect legalised same-sex marriage. “By denying the uniqueness and thus also the special legal status of marriage, based on gender differences, the Court denies the reality”, the cardinal said; in so doing, the Court “does not do society any favours and ultimately hurts everyone, even those it wants to protect and must be protected”. Card. Schönborn said he was “confident” that, “in the long term”, the vision inscribed in creation, “which we cannot ignore without endangering ourselves”, would “once again prevail”. Card. Schönborn, however, expressed “regret” at “the different interpretation” given by the Constitutional Court of “an essential concept of the law, which is rooted in the very essence of man and plays a decisive role in society”, all the more so that “the Court could also have decided otherwise and its ruling is now in contradiction even with the European Court of Human Rights”.