Last Wednesday, Pope Francis continued his ongoing efforts to preserve the traditional family by voicing his approval of a referendum in Slovakia that would protect the country's current ban on same-sex marriage from being overturned by any future efforts.

"I wish to express my appreciation to the entire Slovak church," said Pope Francis to his general audience. "I encourage everyone to continue their efforts in defense of the family, the vital cell of society."

Last year, the Slovakian parliament inserted the definition of traditional marriage into their constitution, emboldening Slovakian conservative group Alliance for the Family to gather over 400,000 signatures, demanding it be put up for a national vote.

"In many countries you feel that people are walking away from the family, they do not consider it to be an important value," Anton Chromik, an attorney and advocate involved with the group, told Reuters. "Slovaks want to say that for them it is the most important thing in their life."

Leading up to the referendum, Slovakia's Catholic Bishops also lent their support with a pastoral letter, asking voters to get behind the initiative.

"Children are our hope for the future,” the letter stated. “Not every generation is given a chance to decide about the future of its homeland. We stand face to face with challenge to express our attitude towards the key values of life."

The referendum, which failed to garner the necessary 50% voter turnout for it to be binding, posed three questions to voters: whether marriage can only be a union between a man and a woman, whether children should be adopted by same-sex couples, and whether or not children can skip classes that educate on sex and euthanasia.

Marianne Duddy-Burke, executive director of the LGBT Catholic group DignityUSA, attempted to downplay Pope Francis' support for Slovakia by saying it only came in response to heat he has gotten from conservative Catholics on LGBT issues, an assertion that does not hold water given the Roman Pontiff's record these past few months. Going all the way back to November, Pope Francis has stated "the family is being bastardized," stressed that children have an inalienable right to a mother and father, extolled the Church's teachings against contraception, and warned people of the Philippines to resist the "sexual colonization" of the West.