The United States Supreme Court’s ruling that the ban imposed by some states on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, paving the way for its universal introduction, has hit the Vatican’s conservative hardliners like a thunderbolt.After the outcome of the referendum in Ireland in favour of gay marriage (greeted at the Vatican with the same shocked incredulity as the Italians’ approval of divorce in 1974 and abortion in 1981), the Roman Curia has been forced to accept that public opinion in the West has changed irreversibly. Social and juridical barriers against same-sex families are rapidly falling and the trend is growing to recognise full equality in marriages or civil partnerships regardless of gender.Nevertheless, at this time, Catholics are speaking out in the stron