Costa Rican Bishops Warn
That ‘Rights’ For Gay
Unions Undermine Family
Catholic News Agency -
In a message made public
last Thursday, the
Bishops’ Conference of
Costa Rica explained
that respect for the
dignity of persons with
homosexual inclinations
cannot lead to the
recognition of “rights”
that attack the
foundation of the family
as the basic cell of
society.
The bishops asked
lawmakers to reject a
proposed law that would
make gay unions
equivalent to marriage.
The bishops warned that
politicians “cannot and
should not legislate
against correct
reasoning, because if
they pass the law it
would lose moral force.”
They explained that
“laws favorable to
homosexual unions are
contrary to correct
reasoning because they
confer legal guarantees
proper to the
institution of marriage
to unions between people
of the same sex.
Considering the values
in question, the State
cannot legalize these
unions without failing
in its duty to promote
and protect an essential
institution for the
common good, which
marriage is.”
The bishops’ responded
to those defending the
“right” to gay marriage
by stressing, “It is
necessary above all to
reflect on the
differences between
homosexual behavior as a
private phenomenon and
public behavior, legally
tested, approved and
converted into an
institution of legal
order. The second
phenomenon is not only
more grave but also of
greater and deeper
scope, as it could
entail changes contrary
to the common good of
the entire social
order.”
“Civil laws are
structural principles of
man’s life in society,
for good or for evil.”
“From a logical
constitutional
perspective, it is
impossible to homologate
or make marriage
equivalent to any other
kind of arrangement
that, with a mere change
of vocabulary, seeks to
have the same kind of
legal standing,” the
bishops said. “In light
of the Church’s teaching
on marriage and the
family and, on the basis
of Costa Rican law
authentically
interpreted by the
Constitutional Court, it
is unacceptable and
incongruent to approve a
measure that aims to
transfer the entire
legal structure of
marriage to unions
between homosexuals.”
Lastly, as shepherds of
the Church, the bishops
called on “Catholic
lawmakers to speak out
and vote against this
measure, and to those
who do not share our
faith, to examine the
arguments we have laid
out. And in conformity
with the rules of
correct reasoning, of
human nature and of life
in society, not to cast
their vote for a bill
that clearly goes
against the common good
of the residents of our
country.” |
