Belgian bishop warns of risks to children adopted by homosexuals

Madrid, Spain, Feb 23, 2004 / 22:00 pm

During a conference which took place at the University of Navarre in Spain, Bishop André Léonard of Namur, Belgium, explained that the adoption of the children by homosexual couples implies an injustice because it provokes “an anti-natural situation which will not be healthy for the child’s development.”

After underscoring that it is difficult that all children grow up in an ideal family environment, Bishop Léonard said this anomalous situation should be resolved.  “What is not just is to provoke an anti-natural situation which will not be healthy for the child’s development.  His reference points become destabilized, and we willfully disturb the foundation of society and jeopardize its future,” he said.

Bishop Leonard added that “we cannot call marriage that which is not.  We must respect the meaning of words and their nature, and marriage has always meant ‘a stable union between man and woman.’  If two men or two women want to live together under legal protection, fine, but they should not be treated legally equal as a true marriage.”

Likewise, in reference to experimentation with adult stem cells, Bishop Leonard underscored that “today they are the most promising,” while “those from embryos carry the danger that they many be carcinogenic, and the multiplying of these cells is still not controllable.”  “And yet embryonic stem cells are exploited to show the omnipotence of science.”

According to the Belgian prelate, the Church is not opposed to progress but rather “takes a more realistic position and shows more respect to the constitution of the human person.”  “We are not things, we were all once embryos,” he emphasized.

As an expert in Metaphysics, Bishop Leonard affirmed, on the other hand, that today we are living “an individualism that is of a practical and not a philosophical nature.  There is no philosophy that is articulated, it’s a vitalistic individualism, almost irrational.”  “The heresies of today are not as intelligent as those of the first centuries of the Church,” he added.

Lastly, referring to the loss of faith in Europe, Bishop Leonard indicated that “there are thousands of reasons to despair, but there are hundreds of thousands of motives to be hopeful.”