“The cohabitation of homosexuals, though it may be registered before a public official, cannot have juridical effects similar to those of marriage between heterosexuals”. This is the sense of a memorandum of 26 February in which the Swiss bishops express their reasoned evaluation of a “preliminary draft for a new federal law concerning the registered cohabitation of persons of the same sex”. In a letter dated 19 February and sent to Ruth Metzler, councillor of the Confederation, Bishop Amedèe Grab, president of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, draws attention to the spirit of the bill which is aimed at “eliminating forms of discrimination, i.e. the unjustified different treatment of homosexual couples”. Reacting to this development, the bishop declares that it is not possible to “water down the cultural and legal privilege of the institution of marriage, as recognized and protected by Swiss law”.
