Politics and religion

As a rule I always refrain from taking part in moral dilemmas. We live in a secular state and the state is there to provide for the welfare of all its citizens, notwithstanding their various religious denominations.

An important document published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican City on July 31, 2003 has recently been brought to my attention. As a practising Roman Catholic and at the same time being a member of the political class, I felt obliged to give this Vatican declaration due consideration.

The document is entitled Considerations On Unions Between Homosexual Persons. Part of it refers directly to the political class and regards the position Catholic politicians are recommended to take over legislation in favour of homosexual unions.

Undoubtedly, the Pope has felt the need to take this initiative on account of recent developments in this regard. There are various countries today, both within and outside the EU, which have promoted legislation in favour of legitimising homosexual unions and giving such unions the legal status of a marriage and of granting the right of gay couples in such unions to adopt children.

As a point of fact, faced with the issue of homosexual unions, civil authorities have been adopting different positions. At times they simply tolerate them, at other times they advocate legal recognition of such unions aiming at avoiding discrimination. In other cases, states favour giving homosexual unions complete marriage status, with the possibility of adopting children.

The document is intended to give direction to Catholic politicians by indicating the approaches for them to take when legislation is proposed in this area, to be consistent with Christian conscience.

Primarily, according to the document, Catholic politicians are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions. Faced with such legislative proposals, Catholic politicians are being urged to take account of the following ethical indications.

When legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is proposed for the first time in a legislative assembly, the document emphasises that the Catholic lawmaker has a moral duty to express his opposition clearly and publicly and to vote against it.

On the other hand, when legislation in favour of the recognition of homosexual unions is already in force, the Catholic politician must oppose it in the ways that are still possible for him and make his opposition known. If it would prove no longer possible to repeal such a law completely, the Catholic politician could licitly support proposals aimed at limiting what the document terms as damage done by such a law.

With regard to adoption, the document advocates strong opposition. The document asserts that the absence of sexual complementarity in these unions creates obstacles in the moral development of children who would be placed in the care of such persons. The reason is that this would deprive them of the experience of either motherhood or fatherhood. According to the document, putting children in such circumstances would place them in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.

Nevertheless, the document stresses that men and women with homosexual tendencies must be accepted with respect, compassion and sensitivity. Furthermore, every sign of unjust discrimination in this regard should be avoided.

Fortunately for us Catholic parliamentarians here in Malta, these hot issues have not as yet come up for debate before parliament. Surely, however, these are pleasures yet to come and the scope of this article is merely to serve as food for thought for parliamentarians at large.

Dr Herrera is the opposition's spokesman on Central Bank, financial and maritime services, Stock Exchange and statistics.