Bucharest, May 24, 2023
Photo: basilica.ro
Ruling on a case brought by 21 same-sex couples, the European Human Rights Court in Strasbourg declared that Romania violated their right to family life and that the state must provide recognition and protection for same-sex relationships.
In response, the Romanian Orthodox Church’s spokesperson Vasile Bănescu sent a statement to the press on the Church’s position towards civil unions.
“From a moral point of view, civil partnership is a surrogate of marriage and a destructive element of the spiritual and moral order in society,” Bănescu said. “Wherever it has been accepted, the legalization of civil partnerships has become the first step towards the legalization of ‘marriage between persons of the same sex,’ being only the means by which this ‘marriage’ can be reached.”
Read the Patriarchate’s full statement:
The Romanian Patriarchate, in consonance with the other Orthodox Churches, constantly disapproves of the promotion of the idea of civil partnerships, as well as its legislation, as it represents not only an unnecessary overlap with the valid institution of marriage, but also a real undermining of the assumption of full responsibility by the two spouses, as well as the toxic source (proven in other societies) of the breakdown of the importance and morally formative authority of the family.
In reality, civil partnership legalize cohabitation, relieve the responsibility of the two partners over time to the detriment of the mother and the child, practically serving the major interest of the latter. The legal framework that optimally protects “the upbringing, education, and training of children” is only the natural family (art. 48, para. 1 of the Romanian constitution).
From a moral point of view, civil partnership is a surrogate of marriage and a destructive element of the spiritual and moral order in society. Wherever it has been accepted, the legalization of civil partnerships has become the first step towards the legalization of “marriage between persons of the same sex,” being only the means by which this “marriage” can be reached.
The granting of legal status to same-sex “couples” by legalizing civil partnerships has proven to be only a cunning and favorable political move towards granting the “right” to marry to people who, by the nature of their free sexual choices, are nevertheless outside the founding reasons and purposes of the natural family based on marriage.
The experience of states that have legalized same-sex marriage is telling. The field of family law, however, is “closely linked to the cultural and historical traditions of each society and its profound conceptions,” so no European or international text can oblige states to create a special status for those who cohabitate, whether of the opposite sex or the same sex.
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