“A further step in the wrong direction”: that’s the view expressed by the German Episcopal Conference on the bill on de facto unions, presented by the Greens and the SPD to the German Federal Parliament. The judgement of the German bishops was expressed in a communiqué of 2 July. The Episcopal Conference recalled its own “criticism” of the law, already formulated “on various occasions” and warned in particular of any legal parity being established between de facto unions and marriage. The bill presented by the majority parties in fact assimilates the two situations: “this demonstrates how justified these fears were and are”, says the communiqué. Referring to other aspects mentioned by the bill in question, the bishops add: “Apart from this criticism on a point of principle, serious concerns are raised with regard to the possibility of adopting step-children. The child would lose its original legal relation of kinship with the parent to whom he/she was born. Motivation is, on the contrary, given to the status of same-sex parent or partner. We must therefore ask ourselves continues the statement if the principles of the well-being of the child or the desire for the stability of a new relationship between adults and its formal documentation are being placed in the foreground”.
