SOUTHERN
AFRICAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE
SUBMISSION TO
THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HOME AFFAIRS ON THE CIVIL UNION BILL (B26-2006)
1.
Introduction
The Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference welcomes the
opportunity to make a submission on such an important piece of
legislation. Participation in the
formulation of policy and legislation is an essential part of the democratic
process and we would thus like to commend Parliament and this Committee in
particular, for the way in which it has encouraged public participation.
We understand that the Constitutional Court judgment in December of last
year obliges Parliament to remedy what the Court deemed to be an inequality in
our law, and that our comments would be most apposite in a debate on whether or
not the lack of recognition of same sex unions is indeed an inequality or
not. However, Parliament is the body
which legislates for and on behalf of our people as a whole, and it is
therefore fitting that we should address our concerns about the Court’s decision
to Parliament and, thereby, also make our views on the matter more widely
known.
2.
The Teaching of the Church
The Catholic Church teaches that “homosexual acts
are intrinsically disordered. They are
contrary to the natural law. They close
the sexual act to the gift of life. They
do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be
approved.” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, par.2357. see also Romans 1:
24-27; 1 Corinthians
Because homosexual acts are against the natural law, homosexual unions
are also contrary to this same law. They
undermine the very nature of marriage and the family as ordained by the Creator
of all, the One to whom all of us are ultimately responsible and to whom we will
have to answer for our actions.
3.
The Nature of Marriage and its Unchanging
Characteristics
Marriage is God’s gift to the world that he
made. It can be described as “a
faithful, exclusive, lifelong union of a man and a woman joined in an intimate
community of life and love.” The Book of
Genesis gives three fundamental elements of God’s plan for marriage:
(i)
Genesis
(ii)
Secondly, marriage comes from the Creator: “that is why a man leaves his
father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body”
(Genesis
(iii)
Thirdly, God gave man and woman a unique part in His creation: “God
blessed them, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth"
(Genesis
Jesus confirmed these teachings of Genesis. He said “But from the beginning of creation
God made them male and female. This is
why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not
divide” (Mark 10: 6-8). Furthermore, the
Catholic Church teaches that the valid marriage between baptised Christians is
a sacrament, a visible and affective sign of God’s grace at work in the lives
of husband and wife and children.
Marriage becomes, for all to see, a living symbol of the total love of
Christ for His Church (see Ephesians
The natural law, sometimes called “natural
revelation”, is part of human nature as created by God and an integral
component of the common heritage of the human race, of every tribe and people.
Sacred Scripture is “Divine Revelation”, God revealing Himself and the mystery
of His will to mankind. This revelation has been faithfully handed down to us,
the men and women of today. We contend that both the law of nature and Divine
Revelation (and the constant teaching of the Church) make it clear that a
homosexual union is in no way similar to marriage:
q marriage was given to us by
God, is expressly willed by God and is compared by
q marriage of its very nature
is ordained to the begetting and rearing of children; homosexual acts divorce
the sexual act from procreation and the homosexual couple cannot cooperate with
God to give new life
q man and woman were made by
God in His image and as male and female they complement each other; this unique complementarity which makes
conjugal love possible is absent in homosexual unions.
4.
Reasons to Safeguard Marriage an Exclusive
What follows flows from what has been said above. It is a summary of the
reasons for the Catholic Church’s opposition to the legalizing of same-sex
unions.
(i)
It is against the Natural Law
We agree that civil law and moral law are two different things but we
also say that man-made laws cannot legitimize what is against the natural moral
law. Civil law cannot make what is wrong
right.
(ii)
It undermines the Family
Across cultures and different religious beliefs, marriage is the
foundation of the family and these cultures and religions see marriage as a
loving and lasting relationship between a man and a woman, a relationship that
is open to new life and the future of the human race.
(iii)
It undermines the Foundations of Society and is against the Common Good
Again, across different religious beliefs and cultures, the family is
seen as the basic unit of society.
Society owes its continued survival to the family, founded on
marriage. Giving legal recognition to
same sex unions would in effect redefine marriage. The very concept of marriage and family would
undergo radical transformation. The
basic institution of the family has already been weakened by a multiplicity of
factors. The cost to society of
recognizing same-sex unions as in any way equivalent to marriage would be very
high indeed. Legislation bearing on
moral issues must be assessed in the light of the way in which they contribute
to the common good of society. Marriage
as we know it is recognized by the State because it contributes to this common
good. Homosexual unions do not exercise this function for the common good and
so should not be so recognized.
(iv)
It is against the Good of Children
The family provides the best conditions for rearing
children, the family being the stable, loving relationship between a married
father and mother. Children who might be
placed in the care of a same-sex couple would be deprived of the experience of
either fatherhood or motherhood. This
would be a grave injustice to these children who would be compelled to grow up
in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.
(v)
It gives the Wrong Message
Laws play an educational role. When is permitted by
law, socially patterns of thought and behaviour change. What is “legal” becomes permissible and
acceptable. Legalising same-sex unions would give public approval to homosexual
activity and this activity would then become morally neutral.
5.
Response to some Objections
(i) The Question of Discrimination
We stated in our introduction that the Catholic
Church deplores homophobia. Homosexual
persons have a right to be treated with respect by individuals and by
society. In fact they may have even a
greater right because they are more vulnerable.
Here, however, we are speaking about giving legal status to
homosexual unions which, we maintain, are not marital and do not contribute to
the common good of society. The legal
recognition of marriage, including the benefits associated with it, is not only
about personal commitment that husband and wife make to the well-being of
society. Justice itself demands that it
would be wrong to redefine marriage for the sake of providing benefits to those
who cannot rightly enter into marriage.
Some of these benefits can be obtained in other ways. For example, any two individuals can agree to
own property jointly or to choose a beneficiary for their will. These benefits
could be extended by provisions that would not amount to a re-definition of
marriage.
(ii)
The Autonomy and Freedom of the
Individual
It is true that each individual has basic human rights and can engage in
those activities that interest them. But
individual men and women live in society and the exercise of individual
freedoms has to be balanced against the common good of that society. Moreover, it is one thing to say that the
state should not put unnecessary limits on individual freedom; it is something
very different to say that the state should give legal recognition to a relationship
that does not make a significant or positive contribution to the development of
the human person in society.
(iii)
Society has Changed
People who argue in favour of legalizing same-sex
unions say that society has changed since biblical times and that it has
changed radically in recent years, and that the law should take these changes
into account. It is true that society
has changed radically, but it is equally true that nothing can change the
natural law or the revealed law of God.
“No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage
exists between a man and a woman who, by mutual personal gift, proper and
exclusive to themselves, tend towards the communion of their persons. In this way they mutually perfect each other,
in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human
life” (Considerations Regarding Proposals to give Legal Recognition to Union
between Homosexual Persons: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, June
2003, par.2).
As said already, a law cannot make what is wrong
right. It is also true that there has
been a change in society’s attitude to marriage and the family, and even to
homosexual activity in society. But it is equally true that the high esteem in
which marriage and family are held has not diminished. Marriage is still seen as the best context in
which to raise a family and, in spite of a high divorce rate, couples still
sincerely pledge their love “until death do them part”.
6.
Conclusion
We conclude with the words of the document already quoted,
Considerations regarding Proposals to give Legal Recognition to Unions between
Homosexual Persons, a document that was signed by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope
Benedict XVI) with the explicit approval of the late Pope John Paul II. The Conclusion reads:
The
Church teaches that respect for homosexual persons cannot lead in any way to
approval of homosexual behaviour or legal recognition of homosexual
unions. The common good requires that
laws recognize, promote and protect marriage as the basis of the family, the
primary unity of society. Legal
recognition of homosexual unions or placing them on the same level as marriage
would mean not only the approval of deviant behaviour, with the consequence of
making it a model in present-day society, but would also obscure basic values which
belong to the common inheritance of humanity.
The Church cannot fail to defend these values, for the good of men and
women and for the good of society itself.
Wilfrid
Cardinal Napier
President:
Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference