Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Quito (Agenzia Fides) - Archbishop Antonio Arregui of Guayaquil, President of the Ecuadorian Bishops’ Conference, joined by other Church authorities and representatives of various sectors, presented over 600,000 signatures of Ecuadorians in support of the Bishops’ Conference’s suggestions to the Constitutional text, to the President of the Constitutive Assembly on the morning of May 14.
Archbishop Arregui drafted the letter presented to Economist Acosta, reiterating the petition of Ecuadorians that “under God’s protection, that the right to life from conception until natural death be acknowledged, that the fact that family is formed by a man and a woman be acknowledged and protected, and that the rights of families, especially in choosing the education of their children, be guaranteed.”
While the letter asks those involved “not to unjustly discriminate homosexual persons, who should have the same legal rights as the rest of citizens,” they also point out that “the inconvenience of offering a special law for those unions between homosexual persons, whose juridical situations of mutual interest would be protected by common law.”
Exactly 636,417 signatures were presented and more are still yet to come, in support of the Bishops’ Conference. They are signatures that “have been collected throughout the entire country in total freedom and in accord with personal conscience, without any expenditure. Those signing are “common citizens.” It is a “manifestation based on the light of Christian faith, from knowledge and right reason, in accord with the origins of cultural patrimony that have formed Ecuador’s national identity and that lead it to a growing value of the human person in our society.”
The letter also reveals their concern for “some who have spoken out against the mentioning of God’s name in the Preamble, as this mentioning is fully compatible with a healthy secularism of State. Secularism is not atheism.”
The statement also mentions some recently approved initiatives that “wish to guarantee the right to a sex-change, which is impossible within human possibilities..., and the right to have children just when one so desires, as though it were a matter of acquiring some material good instead of a gift from God through the responsible love of the parents.” It also asked for a revision of “The declared sacredness of life, that does not specify when human life begins and ends.” “Also, the ambiguity of the moment in which one does or does not want a child, leaves the door open to the possible legalization of abortion.” The statement also mentions the “use of terms that are more of an ideological nature than of a juridical one, as homophobia creates juridical insecurity.”
The letter concludes by asking that “these proposals be studied more in depth before their approval, in order to safeguard the convictions and sensibility of the hundreds of thousands who have signed this document.” (RG) (Agenzia Fides 15/5/2008 righe 38, parole 464)
