FAMILY
The meeting of the permanent Council of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), held for the first time under the chair of its new President, Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco of Genoa, ended in Rome on 29 March. The main issue discussed by the bishops was the protection of the family, including reflection on the so-called “Dico”, the bill on the rights of unmarried couples presented by the government and now being examined by Parliament. In this regard, the permanent Council issued a pastoral statement on 28 March, in which “the legalization of de facto unions” is called “unacceptable on the level of principle, and dangerous at the social and educational levels”. “Whatever the intention of those who propose this bill – says the statement – the effect would inevitably be harmful for the family” because it would deprive “the matrimonial pact of its uniqueness, which alone justifies the rights that are peculiar to spouses and that belong to them alone”. But “an even more serious problem would be represented by the legalization of unions of persons of the same sex, because, in this case, the difference of sex, which is insuperable, would be denied”. The bishops therefore make the following appeal: “Catholic members of parliament have the moral duty clearly and publicly to express their disagreement and vote against” any “bill favourable to the recognition of homosexual unions”. Moreover, “any Christian who supports the legalization of de facto unions” would be acting in a way inconsistent with his faith”. Christians “are called to form their own conscience by seriously consulting the teaching of the Church”, says the statement; therefore, as affirmed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Christians “cannot appeal to the principle of pluralism and of the autonomy of laypeople in politics by supporting solutions that would compromise and undermine the safeguard of the fundamental ethical needs for the common good of society”. The statement ends by inviting “all those who have the responsibility to make the laws to ask themselves what are the right choices to make and the future consequences of their decisions”. After having expressed his “very deep gratitude” to the Pope for appointing him President of the CEI, Archbishop Bagnasco, in his keynote address, then referred to the recently celebrated 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, and joined with Benedict XVI and all those who have expressed the hope for “the public recognition” of the “Christian roots of Europe”.
