In their letter, the bishops note that on April 1, representatives of the bishops’ conference met with Acosta to discuss the need to “recognize the right to life from conception to natural death, to recognize and protect the family made up of a man and a woman, to guarantee the rights of families especially in the education of their children according to their own convictions.”
The letter reiterates “the inappropriateness of putting forth a special law for same-sex unions”, since any legal situations they might encounter “are protected by common law.”
“Mr. President, we present to you the 636,417 signatures of Ecuadorians who support our requests and with the number increasing every day. People throughout the country have signed their names freely and with full knowledge, with no cost whatsoever,” the bishops said. “We hope to be heard and recognized in the new constitutional text,” they added. “Some have protested against mentioning the name of God in the preamble, but doing so is fully compatible with a healthy secularism of the State. Secularism is not atheism,” the bishops stressed.