DURBAN, Oct 3, 01 (LSN.ca/CWNews.com) – A South African high court ruling that same-sex couples should be allowed to adopt children has been denounced by several religious bodies, including the Catholic Church.
The ruling marked the first time that a judge had ruled in favor of gay adoptions. The court ruling was based on the post-apartheid constitution of 1996. That constitution has given rise to liberalization on other social issues such as abortion.
Bishop Reginald Cawcutt, as spokesman for the South African bishops’ conference, told CWN that the Church supported the rights and duties of a one-parent family, and even the right of an individual to adopt. “But it is God’s plan that a man and a woman unite in marriage, together with their children, and form a family,” Bishop Cawcutt said.
“A growing child has so many problems and difficulties to face. For an adoptive baby to be placed in a same-sex situation—with all it contradictions and questions—would, to my mind, only complicate that child’s growth in maturity,” the bishop continued. Thus the Church could never approve of the court ruling, he said.