With a communiqué issued on 29 April, the Swiss Bishops’ Conference has pronounced on the referendum due to be held on 5 June, in which citizens will be called to express their approval of, or opposition to, a federal bill that would legalize homosexual couples. Recalling their own position on the matter, the bishops emphasize that “any form of discrimination against homosexuals must be eliminated; but at the same time any equivalence of homosexual unions with marriage must be rejected”. The bishops reaffirm what they declared during their plenary assemblies in March and June 2004, as well as the opinion they expressed on these occasions, namely that “the new bill does not sufficiently defend the institution of matrimony”. In their communiqué the bishops call the bill “socially disturbing”, since it “privileges without sufficient reasons one group of persons at the expense of others”. “In spite of some limiting provisions, the model of the civil registration of homosexual unions is evidently based on the model of the institution of matrimony. Homosexual unions, however, do not have the same state function as marriage and the family. Marriage and the family guarantee the survival of the State insofar as they donate life and bring up the new generations. These institutions thus need to be supported and privileged by the law. In Switzerland, this support needs to be further developed. The bishops cannot support an institution similar to marriage that privileges a group of persons devoid of this state function”.
