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OPPOSITION TO SAME-SEX MARRIAGE AND ADOPTIONS IN QUEBEC

Bishops State Acceptance of Homosexual Relations Will Worsen Low Birth Rate Problems.

QUEBEC CITY, May 24, 2002 (LSN.ca) - 200 to 300 people, including many young families, voiced their concern at a Quebec City rally on Monday against Bill 84, Quebec's proposed new law creating same-sex "civil unions" with many of the rights of marriage, including adoption. The rally in front of Quebec's National Assembly was organized by the Wisdom Party of Quebec, the Francophone Alliance of Evangelical Protestants, and Campaign Life Quebec.

Speaking at the rally, André Morais, secretary of the Catholic Jurists Association of Quebec called the bill "degrading and infamous. It goes against thousands of years of history. Natural law is to have a man and a woman as parents."

Meanwhile, Nicolet Bishop Raymond Saint-Gelais, President of the Association of Quebec Bishops, issued a press release criticizing the law, despite earlier statements by Archbishop Bertrand Blanchet of Rimouski accepting civil unions and homosexual adoptions under certain circumstances.

The bishops appear to have strengthened their position on this law as Bill 84 appears to not only allow "civil unions" between same sex partners, but redefines marriage under the Quebec Civil Code, despite marriage falling under federal jurisdiction. The bill also appears to open adoption to all same-sex couples, not merely couples in which one partner is the biological parent of the child.

Bishop Saint-Gelais said that the proposed redefinition of marriage "renders the whole bill unacceptable. Under the pretext of respecting individual sexual preferences, it doesn't take account of the judicial tradition of Quebec and all democratic countries, which have always recognized matrimonial union and that which naturally follows from it, namely the natural family." On adoption, Bishop Saint-Gelais said the bishops "strongly questioned making a general rule that extends to all same-sex partners the possibility of adopting children who have no biological ties to one or the other."

In their statement the bishops point out that the heightened acceptance of homosexual relations would worsen the already worrisome problem of low birth rates in Quebec.

For the full Bishop's Conference statement on the issue see:
http://www.eveques.qc.ca/aeqdoc_aeq_2002_5_15_f_0.html

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