Thursday November 29, 2007
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Polish Bishops Praise Government for Refusal to Ratify Pro-Homosexual European Human Rights Charter
By Hilary White
WARSAW, November 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper reports that the government will opt out of the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights, a move that has been welcomed by Poland’s bishops.
Donald Tusk, who became Prime Minister on November 9 and took office on November 16, said he will honour the commitment of the previous government and join the UK as the only nations to opt out of the Charter. Tusk had indicated in a campaign speech that his government would ratify the Charter.
“I will respect the results of the negotiations by my predecessors,” Tusk told Parliament.
Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek, a retired auxiliary of the Sosnowiec diocese, said, “Tusk made a very wise decision given the concerns of the previous government and of the Church.”
The Charter of Fundamental Rights has been used as a major political lever to support the “homosexual rights” political agenda in Europe and the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights has urged the Polish government to have the country become a full party to it. Its provisions have allowed homosexual pressure groups to gain ground in attempts to force countries to adopt “gay marriage” and civil unions, as well as the right to adopt children.
Many in the European Parliament had waited for the new Polish government to signal its willingness to “return” to solidarity with the European movement by ratifying the Charter. Before the last election, President Lech Kaczynski, and twin brother of outgoing Prime Minister Jaroslaw, said that Poland would only ratify the EU’s Reform Treaty if the country would be allowed to join Britain in a protocol limiting the application of the Rights Charter.
Tusk’s party, the Civic Platform (PO) had vowed to overturn that decision, with party leader Tusk arguing that such an opt-out would weaken, rather than strengthen, human rights. President Kaczynski replied that he would veto the ratification if PO were to strike down the protocol.
Speaker Bronislaw Komorowski of the PO told journalists that the government is taking that threat seriously. “If we are faced with a choice between ratifying the treaty with the charter and the British protocol, and not having anything at all, we’ll choose the first option.”
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Text of European Parliament Resolution Condemning “Homophobia”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/apr/070428a.html
European Parliament Accuses Croatia of Homophobia in Schools
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/may/07050801.html
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