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Rome, 28th March 2007 (CNA) - The Permanent
Council of the Italian Bishops Conference, led by new president Archbishop
Angelo Bagnasco, has sent a firm message to members of the Italian
Legislature – voting for the legalization of civil unions, which would pave
the way for legalized homosexual “marriage,” is not compatible with the
Catholic faith and is dangerous to society.
The Italian legislature is in the process of
considering a proposal known as the Dico Bill which would provide legal
recognition, equal to marriage, for any cohabiting couples, those couples
which are homosexual.
“The legalization of civil unions,” the
bishops said, is, “unacceptable on a principle level; it is dangerous on the
social and educational level.”
The law would have dangerous effects on the
family, the Italian prelates said, because it would deprive “the marriage
pact of its uniqueness, which alone justifies the rights of spouses, which
belong just to them.”
“An even more serious problem,” they
continued, “would be the legalization of civil unions of people of the same
sex, because, in this case, one would deny sexual difference, which is
insuperable.”
The bishops note that their objections do not
in any way, “compromise the acknowledgement of the dignity of every person.
“We confirm our respect and our pastoral
concern to all,” the bishops write.
At the same time, they continue, “the law does
not exist with the aim of giving juridical shape to any kind of life in
common, or supplying ideological acknowledgments. On the other hand, the
law’s objective is to guarantee public responses to social needs exceeding
the private dimension of existence.”
“We are aware,” the bishops said, of the
existence of “concrete situations in which juridical protections and
guarantees may be useful for the person living together with someone. By
principle, we are not against this kind of attention. However, we firmly
believe that it is possible to pursue this objective within individual
rights, without conceiving a new juridical figure which would be an
alternative to marriage and the family, and would produce more damage than
the one it intends to repair.”
According to ANSA the bill was created after
long negations between was hammered out after long negotiations between
Romano Prodi's centre-left allies. It was a supposed compromise between
hard-line gay marriage campaigners on the left and more cautious centrists.
Catholic MPs have a "moral duty to express
their disagreement clearly and publicly and to vote against any draft law
that could give recognition to gay unions," the bishops also wrote,
following a meeting.
The bishops also dismissed suggestions that
they were interfering in national politics, saying it was their duty to
speak out on "ethical principles which are fundamental for society's common
good."
According to the most recent available figures
from national statistics bureau Istat, the number of unmarried couples
living together in Italy doubled between 1994 and 2003 from 227,000 to
555,000.
A survey published in the Corriere della Sera
daily last month found that 49% of Italians opposed the DICO bill and 47%
were in favor. Pollsters found that support for the bill would have been
higher if the rights it contained had not been extended to gay couples as
well as heterosexual ones.
About 40 associations, many of them Catholic
ones, are organizing a 'Family Day' demonstration in Rome on May 12, ANSA
reports. The groups are calling on the government to do more to support
families and, although the Dico law is not mentioned in their manifesto,
they oppose putting marriage on a par with "other forms of cohabitation."
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