Declaration regarding the Resolution of the European Parliament dated March 16, 2000, making de facto unions, including same sex unions, equal to the family

The communications media report that the European Parliament has approved a Resolution regarding human rights in the European Union which also considers de facto unions, including the registered cohabitation of persons of the same sex, and the need to recognize 'legal marriages' between persons of the same sex.

This Resolution represents a grave and repeated attack on the family based on marriage, a union of love and life between a man and a woman from which life naturally springs. Every society is solidly based on this marital union because it is a necessary value. To deny this fundamental and elementary anthropological truth would lead to the destruction of the fabric of society. Doesn't making 'de facto' unions, and all the more homosexual unions, equivalent to marriage, and inviting Parliaments to adjust their laws in this sense, represent a refusal to recognize the deep aspirations of peoples in their innermost identity?

Throughout history peoples have wisely recognized what marriage is and involves and now, through this Resolution, it is being subjected to a distorted interpretation by the European Parliament. Happily, the Parliaments of Europe will surely be in harmony and agreement with the great majority of European families who urgently need help in their noble mission and who now see themselves unjustly considered as equal to this type of 'union' through the Resolution in question which has no authentic legislative value nor is a compulsory guideline. The specific nature of the family based on marriage is recognized by most of the European Constitutions. Moreover, this nature is not just a truth for believers: it is the natural heritage of humanity that is written in every person's heart and characterizes the culture of peoples.

Lawmakers, therefore, and in particular Catholic members of parliaments, should not favor this type of legislation with their vote because it is contrary to the common good and the truth about man and is thus truly unjust.

Vatican City, March 17, 2000

Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo
President

Francisco Gil Hellín
Secretary