On Saturday, 62 percent of Irish voters cast their ballot to legalize same-sex “marriage.” All but one of Ireland’s 43 districts approved same-sex “marriage” by popular vote.

The New York Times questioned what this means for the future of the Catholic Church. Its article “Catholic Church Ponders Future After Same-Sex Marriage Vote in Ireland,” points out that as a virtual colony of the Vatican after leaving Britain in 1922, Ireland held to Catholic views for a time but eventually strayed from them.

In 1979, more than 1 million showed up for John Paul ii’s visit to Dublin. That was more than a quarter of the nation’s population. The Times writes: “[I]t underscored how different Ireland is today for the young, who turned out in droves to vote. In a little more than a generation, Ireland has both distanced itself from the church and sharpened its secular identity.”

As late as 1983, Ireland adhered to Catholic teachings with a two-thirds majority referendum outlawing abortion. Over the years, however, more and more residents began to drift.

But there were signs things were changing in the 1970s. In 1971, women’s rights activists made a push to legalize contraception. Seventeen years later in 1988, Mary Robinson successfully argued a case in the European court challenging Ireland’s law against homosexuality. Five years later, as Ireland’s president, she signed a law decriminalizing homosexuality.

In concert with changing views inside Ireland, travel to greater parts of the Continent became readily available. Low-cost airfair opened youthful eyes to notions their parents never saw under the molding of Britain and the Catholic Church. The 1990s’ economic boom helped evolve Irish society’s view on homosexuality. To top it all off, more diversity arrived with the inundation of young Eastern Europeans and youth from elsewhere.

Although Ireland is the first to legalize same-sex “marriage” by popular vote, many other countries have legalized it. The Netherlands paved the way in 2001, followed by Belgium in 2003, and then Canada, Spain, and South Africa soon thereafter.

Whether legalizing these unions or simply affording them more rights, many countries’ views on homosexuality have changed in the last 30 years. This trend points in a horrifying direction.

The decline of nuclear families affects nations. As the building block of a strong nation, mother-father families are vital. Since a solid family structure is the foundational bulwark of a stable and permanent society, this fact means only one thing—civilization as we know it is on its way down and out.

More alarming than Ireland’s drifting from the Vatican is its overwhelming acceptance of same-sex “marriage.” Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Trumpet’s predecessor, the Plain Truth, warned a half century ago that a downward moral plunge would pose a greater threat to our society—particularly in America and Britain—than even the hydrogen bomb. Morals in society are becoming threadbare, yet people celebrate homosexual advancements as though they are victories.

Read “Same-Sex ‘Marriage’—the New Mainstream” to gain deeper insight into the effects same-sex unions have on society.