Rome, Italy, Feb 16, 2011 / 14:08 pm
The president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, recently affirmed that adoption policies should prioritize “the good of the child, who needs both a father and a mother.”
Cardinal Antonelli’s comments came in response to a petition filed by the Supreme Court of Appeals in Italy requesting that Congress pass a law allowing the adoption of minors by single adults.
According to Italian law, only married couples can adopt children.
The Court of Appeals made the petition after a woman from Genoa requested the court legitimize her adoption of a Belarusian girl. The girl lived with the woman for two years in Russia and then in the United States, where the adoption was declared valid.
Although the ruling by the U.S. court was upheld by the Court of Appeals in Genoa in 2009, the mother is still subject to some limitations under the law.