Card. Carlo Caffarra, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bologna, spoke out in the debate on the legal recognition of the unions of same-sex couples in matrimony and the adoption of children by these same couples.
In a note, dated February 14th, 2010, the Archbishop already recalled some principles of civilization according to the rationale of the Christian perspective: «While the legitimate union between a man and a woman ensures the good − and not just the biological good! − of procreation and of the survival of the human species, homosexual union is in itself incapable of generating new lives. The possibilities offered today by artificial procreation, in addition to being susceptible to serious violations of the human person’s dignity, does not substantially change the unsuitableness of the homosexual couple in order to life. Furthermore, it has been shown that the absence of sexual complementarity can create serious obstacles to the development of the child that might be adopted by these couples. The fact would resemble the acts of violence committed against the smallest and weakest being, since he/she would be inserted in a context unsuited to the child’s harmonious development».
Card. Carlo Caffarra’s Statement to the Press, July 1st, 2013:
«What has been prophesied as the ineluctable destiny of the Country in order to become finally civil, by recognizing the right of same-sex couples to marriage and adoption, is a cheap ploy. This doesn’t take away the seriousness of this kind of public stance on the part of the city’s representatives. And should they put the citizen who not just out of phobia but for motivated reasons, believes that marriage is what has been defined since the dawn of civilization, or who considers that it’s impossible to speak of a right to adopt but that every child has the right to have a father and a mother?
Should this citizen, with his culture and reason, really considered uncivilized and out of phase with history, doomed to feel like a stranger in his own home, because he can’t keep up with the so-called progress?
Of course, there will be those who, filling their mouths with talk about the separation between Church and State (which is a much more serious matter!), accuse us of wanting to impose a religious doctrine. However, religion or parties, homophobia or discrimination have nothing to do with this: the foundation of a civilization as wide as the world and as old as the history is being undermined; and perhaps people don’t grasp the enormity of what is at stake.
Saying that for society or for to children there’s no difference between homo and hetero couples, means denying an obvious fact that when you’re obliged to explain it you feel like crying. Our thinking has become so obscure that we imagine that the laws actually establish the truth of things, and in this blotting out the common good each individual’s desires is considered his/her fundamental human right».
