Vatican launches counter-strike against gay marriage, adoption

Social justice news
August 2003

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Vatican launches counter-strike against gay marriage, adoption
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Vatican launches counter-strike against gay marriage, adoption
Amid increasing worldwide initiatives to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions and a growing acceptance of gay and lesbian people and their parenting, the Vatican called on global lawmakers to offer "clear and emphatic opposition" to efforts to codify "gay marriages," which it said were contrary to human nature and ultimately harmful to society.

"Not even in a remote analogous sense do homosexual unions fulfill the purpose for which marriage and family deserve specific categorical recognition," the document said. "On the contrary, there are good reasons for holding that such unions are harmful to the proper development of human society, especially if their impact on society were to increase," it said.

In a 12-page document released July 31, the Vatican also expressed alarm at moves to allow gay couples to adopt children, which it said would be a form of "violence" against children and "gravely immoral."

The document rejected arguments that failing to give gay unions legal recognition would be discrimination and underscored the unique social role of marriage between a man and a woman in continuing the human race and raising children. "The denial of the social and legal status of marriage to forms of cohabitation that are not and cannot be marital is not opposed to justice; on the contrary, justice requires it," it said.

"Legal recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage would mean not only the approval of deviant behavior, with the consequence of making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which belong to the common inheritance of humanity," it said.

The document said Catholic politicians are morally bound to oppose such "gravely unjust laws" and said all public servants had the right to conscientious objection if they were asked to apply them.

Critics charged that amid the ongoing sexual-abuse crisis in the United States and around the world and with a clergy that is by some estimates anywhere between 15 to 50 percent homosexual, members of the church hierarchy were not in a position to make pronouncements on human sexuality and morality.

"The Vatican's continuing unwillingness to engage Catholic laity in a discussion about human sexuality weakens its positions," said Linda Pieczynski, spokesperson for Call to Action, a U.S. group seeking church reforms. "This new document does nothing to further a thoughtful discussion on homosexual unions, an important issue facing many churches,"

Titled "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons," the document coincided with a growing movement in Europe and North America toward granting gay couples some or all of the legal protections and benefits of marriage. The document went further than proposals to simply ban gay marriage by rejecting any extension of special rights or legal status to homosexual couples.

The document warned of the "danger" that granting legal status to gay unions "could actually encourage a person with a homosexual orientation to declare his homosexuality and even to seek a partner in order to exploit the provisions of the law."

The document said granting legal status to gay unions would expose young people, especially, to erroneous ideas about sexuality and marriage, and thus could "contribute to the spread of the phenomenon." The document also condemned legislative moves to allow gay couples to adopt.

The CTA's Pieczynski responded, "We are in the midst of great social change regarding our understanding of homosexuality spurred by scientific studies about human sexuality. What is needed now is an intense dialogue among people of good will that will incorporate this new understanding of sexuality into our theology.

"Women used to be considered less human than men by theologians in past centuries because of ignorance about reproduction. No one would dare suggest such a concept now. The Vatican's harsh language . . . is very hurtful to our gay and lesbian relatives, friends, and their families."

Pieczynski specifically referred to the section of the document which claimed that supporting homosexual unions was the "approval or legalization of evil." She said, "There is tremendous evil in this world involving terrible violence against children, as we have seen in the clergy sex abuse scandal. When we think of our relatives and friends who are involved in committed same sex relationships, 'evil' is not a word that can ever be used to describe them."

The document maintains that allowing children to be adopted by persons living in homosexual unions would mean doing violence to these children since they lack both a mother and father. Pieczynski asked whether this means that the Vatican opposes adoption by single persons since those children would have only a mother or a father.

"Gays and lesbians have been adopting children who are often considered not adoptable because of their age, race or special needs. Are these children better off in revolving foster homes or orphanages?" she said. "Who is truly acting in the best interests of the children? The gays and lesbians who open their homes to these vulnerable children or the hierarchy, which has a terrible record of protecting children?"

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