Gay marriage said to add to family crisis
PANAMA’S Catholic leaders believe that recognizing gay marriage would add another element towards destabalizing family life already in crisis.
The Panamanian Episcopal Conference on Sunday May 21 commented on the pending cases before the Supreme Court calling for recognition of equal marriage in Panamanian legislation.
The conference, which brings together the bishops of the country's Catholic Church, believes that recognizing gay marriage is not necessary "to effectively protect the rights of samesex persons."
The two claims of unconstitutionality that are before the court were presented by the firm Morgan & Morgan. In one, it is requested that the phrase "between a man and a woman" in article 26 of the Family Code be defined as unconstitutional.
The second complaint requests the declaration of unconstitutionality of article 26 and articles 34 and 35 of the Family Code. All prohibit samesex marriage.
The Panamanian Episcopal Conference says in a statement it shares the state's obligation to eliminate all forms of unfair discrimination.
"However, it is one thing to legally regulate unions between persons of the same sex in the field of civil and patrimonial rights and another, very different, is to want to offer to these unions a legal recognition as marriages," the conference said in a press release.
"In our country the Panamanian family lives in a deep crisis...Let us not add another element to destabilize it. Marriage is not a purely an affective union, it is also a natural and juridical union, oriented to the procreation, to the education of the children and to the mutual aid between the spouses," the statement said.
