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SPAIN-GAYMARRIAGE (CORRECTED) Oct-4-2004 (920 words) xxxn
Bill in Spain would allow homosexual couples to marry, adopt
By Julius Purcell
Catholic News Service
BARCELONA, Spain (CNS) -- Despite repeated criticism from the Catholic Church, Spain's Cabinet has approved a bill that would allow homosexuals to marry and adopt children.
Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela of Madrid, president of the Spanish bishops' conference, said the move was opposed by "the whole church." Before the Oct. 1 Cabinet approval, the conference had called the legislation a "virus."
The government move was the latest in what some have described as the Spanish government's distancing of itself from the Catholic Church.
The draft bill will be voted on in Spain's Parliament later this fall. The opposition Conservative Party opposes the legislation, but the Socialist government looks set to be supported by an informal coalition of smaller parties.
If the legislation is passed, Spain would become only the third country in the world to legalize gay marriages, after the Netherlands and Belgium.
Bishop Jose Sanchez Gonzalez of Siguenza-Guadalajara told Catholic News Service that the possibility of gay couples being granted the right to adopt is "atrocious."
Bishop Sanchez said gay people are a reality in society, but he said homosexual partnerships can never be equated with marriage.
"In no way is our position on this draft bill an attack against homosexuals, and we recognize that they are people with the right to treatment that respects their dignity," he said.
"Matrimony is another thing entirely. ... It is for the stable union of a man and a woman for the procreation and upbringing of children. And this cannot be applied to a union between two people of the same sex," Bishop Sanchez said.
He added that the possibility that gay couples could adopt children "seems atrocious to us."
"A child has a right, as far as is possible ... to have a father and a mother, not to have two fathers or two mothers. While we are talking of the rights of homosexuals, we also have to keep in mind (the rights) of children as well," he said.
The draft bill proposes amending a clause in Spain's civil code to the effect that marriage is not "impeded by the gender of the parties." The bill would put married gay couples on an equal footing with heterosexual married couples in terms of pensions, inheritance and alimony.
Speaking Sept. 30, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Rodriguez Zapatero addressed criticisms from the church.
"Spain is a democracy whose sovereignty lies in Parliament. ... Church doctrine has to differentiate between the civil sphere and the sphere of private convictions. The worst thing that can happen is when there is confusion between these," the prime minister said.
The Cabinet's approval of the gay marriages bill comes amid a general souring of relations between the bishops and government over other plans for social reform.
Among these are proposals for the relaxing of the abortion and divorce laws and a review of the amount of funding the church receives. The government has indicated it intends to review the 25-year-old accords signed between Spain and the Vatican.
The bishops and Catholic educational groups have expressed concern about the government's vision for religious education in state schools. For the first time, formal details on this were outlined in a document released by the Education Ministry Sept. 27.
The document said Catholic education classes would continue to be taught in schools by teachers chosen and trained by the bishops' conference. However, these classes will be optional and ungraded.
Last year, the Conservative Party government passed legislation that would have made religious education compulsory and graded. This legislation, which should have taken effect at the start of this school year, was frozen by Zapatero's Socialists soon after they won power in March.
Responding to the document, Salesian Father Manuel de Castro, president of the Spanish Federation of Educational Clergy, told Catholic News Service that he sensed "a certain amount of hostility" from the government toward the teaching of Catholic values in schools.
Father de Castro defended the principle laid down in the country's constitution that Spain is a nonconfessional state and said the government should adopt a position that "is neither confessional nor secularist."
"Unfortunately ... it is the desire of many politicians that religion is reduced to the confines of the private individual," Father de Castro said, adding that he welcomed continued dialogue between his organization and the Socialists.
Meanwhile, Zapatero has attempted to calm the controversy over reports that the Socialist government intends to review the 1979 Spain-Vatican accords that govern the church's funding by way of voluntary tithes.
On Sept. 24, El Mundo newspaper reported that the government was preparing a plan to address what Socialist sources dubbed "the undeniable advantages" of the Catholic Church.
However, Zapatero insisted on Sept. 28 that "there is no intention of changes to the fundamental accords with the Catholic Church."
Central to these accords is the right of Catholics to donate a percentage of their income tax to the church. Key members of the Socialist Party argue that other religious groups do not get the same opportunity to support their faith community, and that despite its annual revenue from tithes, the Catholic Church still receives an additional $37.2 million in public funding.
Government officials have suggested that Muslim, Jewish and Protestant taxpayers be offered a tithe plan for their respective communities -- a proposal the church has welcomed.
Recent reports also suggest that the church would accept losing the additional state funding in return for raising the tithe from 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent of each donor's income tax.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
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