The family and life

The Commission of the Family of the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference met in Budapest on 11 March for a meeting chaired by Bishop László Bíró to tackle a number of important social and ethical issues: the adoption of a clear position against the reformulation of a bill on civil partnerships drafted by the Hungarian government and presented to Parliament; a statement on stem-cell research; the defence of Sunday as a day of rest; and the enunciation of some criteria for the forthcoming European parliamentary elections (4-7 June). Law on civil partnerships. The government has now presented to Parliament a reformulated bill on civil partnerships which was supposed to come into force on 1st January this year but which the Constitutional Court had rejected, in its original version, on 17 December. According to the Commission for the Family, the law, as reformulated by the government, “constitutes a dangerous attack on the family, the basic institution of society”. And it adds: “Not only the Church, not only the natural law, but even the Hungarian Constitution declares that the family is the exclusive communion of life of a man and a woman to the benefit of society, having as its purpose the well-being of the spouses themselves and the bearing and upbringing of children”. The Hungarian Church further affirms that both in the interests of the child and for the future of society it is better to ensure that “the legal effects be linked to the institution of marriage and not to other types of relationships”.Stem-cell research. “For a long time now – says the communiqué of the Commission for the Family – news has been appearing in the media about stem-cell research and about the permits granted, or the bans imposed, for proceeding with this research in various countries, as also about its funding. Recently we have learned that in America the federal government has given the go-ahead to this research”. The Commission recalls that “human life begins with its conception; hence the foetus is a human person of full value to whom respect for human dignity is owing. The use of the foetus for research purposes involves its destruction; consequently it is fundamentally a murder”. In another previous position enunciated on 19 June 2008, the Commission had declared that “the human foetus must be considered a person from the moment of conception”; hence its utilization for scientific purposes “is inadmissible”. Sunday as a day of rest. The Commission for the Family deplores the fact that “plans aimed at tackling the economic and financial crisis in our time in Europe and in Hungary fail to take due account of man”. The Commission especially contests the fact that “the increasingly widespread order of work is that of seven days a week. It’s an order aimed at short-term investments and profits, but at the same time “highly disadvantageous to those who are forced to work also on Sundays”. The communiqué adds: “Sunday as a day of rest is a cultural heritage of Europe, a tradition that has contributed in a fundamental way to the richness of the social and cultural life of our continent”. Sunday work, moreover, establishes a criterion of competition that is unfair to small and medium businesses which are unable to open on Sundays.European parliamentary elections. The Bishops’ Commission for the Family also confirmed its acceptance of the criteria published by the Federation of European Catholic Family Associations (FAFCE), by which it intends to inform the candidates in the European parliamentary elections and the electorate on the problems concerning families that the European Parliament is called to tackle. Even if questions regarding family law do not fall under the powers of the European Union, EU regulation of many other questions (demographic, professional, social, immigration etc.) have close repercussions on the life of the family. According to these criteria, the EU ought to tackle European questions regarding demographic policies by “giving the role and value of the family their rightful place”. “The EU – points out the Commission for the Family – has declared 2010 the Year of the Fight against Poverty and Exclusion. Since there is a very close link between the poverty of children and the impoverishment of families, we need to combat the poverty of children by due moral and material recognition of the activities of families in creating value”. The EU is also asked to defend Sunday as a day of rest and to adopt a policy to reduce VAT on the products that children need (e.g. nappies, clothes, cots for infants), and on services linked to the education of children (infant healthcare, sport, art education).