AMERICA/COSTA RICA - “Safeguard the family in its unity and integrity”: Bishops take part in legislative assembly session

Tuesday, 5 October 2010

San Jose (Agenzia Fides) – This coming October 13, there will be a forum (Official Session) on human rights and the family at the headquarters of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica, the highest institution in the country. The forum will be attended by Archbishop Hugo Barrantes Ureña, Archbishop of San José and President of the Costa Rican Bishops' Conference, and Bishop José Francisco Ulloa Rojas, Bishop of Cartago and President of the National Commission for the Pastoral Care of the Family. The meeting was organized by Rita Chaves Casanoca and Oscar Alfaro Zamora, members of the Commission on Human Rights of the Legislative Assembly, and will also be attended by Spanish bioethics expert Juan Manuel Burgos Velasco, along with representatives of the Evangelical Alliance and the Center for the Study of the Latin-American Family (CIFEBAM).
The event assumes a special importance, as the country has been divided over the proposals to change the laws on the composition of the traditional family. In August of last year, the Bishops of Costa Rica raised their voices in support for the unity of the family and its composition, as determined by the civil constitution and by Christian principles. In the last Assembly of Bishops, a special pastoral apostolate was proposed for the family, to highlight its composition and dignity.
In the process of evangelization, the family is the center of the Church's mission. "With the slogan 'The Family, God's Gift to Society,' the Church of Costa Rica - reads the concluding document of the 100th plenary assembly of Bishops – wishes to contribute to reaffirming the identity of the family and making it aware of its fundamental role in the formation of society.” In a historical moment in which there is an attempt being made to distort the nature of the family institution, the bishops are seeking to protect the family “in its unity and integrity as the fruit of the union between a man and a woman,” by encouraging its promotion "as a social instrument of education and human development, entitled to inalienable rights." (CE) (Agenzia Fides 05/10/2010)


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