Inter-religious leaders in Slovenia join forces to defend the family
Polls open Sunday, March 25, in Slovenia for a referendum on the Family Code, which
seeks to legalize same-sex unions, allowing them to adopt children.
In view
of the upcoming vote, representatives from the Catholic, Orthodox and Muslim communities
in the country have signed a joint declaration which reaffirmed the importance of
family based on marriage and ask citizens to protect it.
The document—signed
by the Catholic Metropolitan of Ljubljana, Archbishop Anton Stres; a representative
of the Serbian Orthodox Church of the Metropolitan Province of Zagreb-Ljubljana, Tomo
Ćirković; and the mufti of the Islamic community of the Republic of Slovenia, Nedžad
Grabus—states that “marriage and family are of utmost importance for the development
of the human person and society.” “For this reason we all have an obligation to protect
the values of marriage and of family as a community of a husband and a wife, and children.”
The statement urges “all citizens and civil organizations to take a stand
for the defence and preservation of family values and for the adoption of appropriate
legislation that would protect family life and the basic rights of children.”
The
document concludes by emphasising that “family life is the cornerstone of every society
and state, which means that the state should be in the service of the family and not
the family in the service of the state.”
The full text of the statement
appears below:
Religious and cultural values are best transmitted in
a family environment
A Statement by communities of faith
We
the faithful of the Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolitan Province of the Serbian Orthodox
Church, the Roman Catholic Church and the Islamic Community in the Republic of Slovenia
hereby declare that marriage and family are of utmost importance for the development
of the human person and society; for this reason we all have an obligation to protect
the values of marriage and of family as a community of a husband and a wife, and children.
We
the undersigned communities of faith highly appreciate married and family life. Therefore
we have committed ourselves to defend the right of every single child to a family
environment with both a father and a mother. We strongly and deeply believe that the
family is the basic cell of society, in which the values such as love, life, mutual
respect, solidarity and hospitality are nurtured in a special way. In addition, family
environment is the most fertile ground for the transmission of religious and cultural
traditions from one generation to the next. Making same-sex unions equal contenders
with heterosexual couples when it comes to adoption of children is therefore unjustified,
as same-sex partnerships can never provide the essential and non-interchangable roles
of a father and a mother in a family that are crucial for harmonious and wholesome
personal development of children.
We the religious citizens have a special
vocation to take a public stand on behalf of and for the protection of married and
family life, to help families in distress, as well as to support the right of parents
to an education for their children that is in agreement with their ethical and religious
convictions. We therefore bid all citizens and civil organizations to take a stand
for the defense and preservation of family values and for the adoption of appropriate
legislation that would protect family life and the basic rights of children. An exclusive
emphasis on individual rights to the neglect of institutionalized social relations
can in the long run lead any civilization into ruin. In conclusion, we emphasize
that family life is the cornerstone of every society and state, which means that the
state should be in the service of the family and not the family in the service of
the state. At this point we also wish to thank all the citizens and institutions that
are working on behalf of families for their unselfish and noble effort.
Paroh
Tomo Ćirković for the Serbian Orthodox Church the Zagreb-Ljubljana Metropolitan
Province
the Metropolitan Archbishop of Ljubljana Msgr. Anton
Stres, Ph. D. for the Catholic Church
Mufti Nedžad Grabus, Ph.
D. for the Islamic Community in the Republic of Slovenia