Montevideo, Uruguay, Aug 17, 2009 / 14:44 pm
Archbishop Nicolas Cotugno of Montevideo, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Uruguay, issued a statement last week warning that a new law intended to allow homosexual couples to adopt children would have serious consequences for society, especially for the young.
“The adoption of children by homosexual couples is not a question of religion, philosophy or sociology. It has to do with respect for human nature itself,” he said. “To accept the adoption of children by homosexual couples is to go against human nature itself, and consequently, it is to go against the fundamental rights of the human being as a person.”
In his statement, Archbishop Cotugno recalled the 2003 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which stated that to legally recognize homosexual unions and make them equal to marriage would not only mean the approval of a deviant form of behavior but also the obscuring of fundamental values that are part of humanity’s common heritage.
The archbishop also pointed out that in such adoptions, the interests of the child are made secondary to those of the adoptive parents and that the children are made into instruments at the service of the desires and wishes of others rather than being given what they truly need.
Children “cannot be used as instruments by certain groups or persons for [the purpose of] demanding rights,” he added, nor can adoption be made subject to political expediency. Adoption by homosexual couples is discrimination against children, “because they could be adopted by natural parents,” the archbishop stated.
“Those who freely chose a life of homosexual relations have assumed a life style that is unconnected to procreation and to the ability to be parents. If you reject the cause you cannot lay claim its natural effect. Notwithstanding, to accept adoption by homosexual couples would be to grant those who opted for the life style of not being parents the right to be such, thus prioritizing their interests over those of the child. And this is inadmissible from every point of view,” the archbishop said, underscoring that his statements were not in reference to homosexuals as persons, who as such “deserve the highest respect.”
Children are the poorest, most vulnerable and neediest members of society,” Archbishop Cotugno said, “and they deserve special care and protection. It is the duty of the human family and of society itself to defend them and promote them in accord with their fundamental rights and with the demands proper of human nature,” he said.