Should the “anti-racist” criminal standard be extended to insults against sexual minorities? The people are called to answer yes or no to this question during the polls this Sunday. The Catholic Church prefers to keep quiet. “The doctrine of the Catholic Church stands without exception against any appeal to hatred and discrimination against individuals or groups,” writes the Swiss Conference of Bishops (CES) on its website. However, it will be up to citizens to judge whether this principle is already sufficiently anchored in existing legislation or whether it should be extended. ”A position shared by the diocese of Lausanne, Geneva and Friborg.
Should we see in this freedom to vote a lack of courage? “Not at all,” answers Encarnación Berger-Lobato, spokesperson for the ETUC. The Conference of Bishops recognizes that homosexual people need protection. But as the jurists were not unanimous on the fact that this modification of the penal norm was the most useful and effective way to achieve it, she decided not to pronounce. It is not related to theological arguments, but legal ones. “
Blur the message
Doesn’t this restraint of the Church risk blurring the message, especially among the PDC electorate, the Christian party that supports the norm? “We must not confuse the PDC with the Swiss Conference of Bishops. Everyone takes his decisions democratically and freely, reacts Marianne Maret (PDC / VS), who personally undertook a yes vote on February 9. And this, the voter knows. ”How can the timidity of the Church on this issue be explained? “There were undoubtedly diverging opinions which led to this freedom to vote.”
The Valais senator does not think so well. In a column published in early January, this is what the auxiliary bishop of Chur, Msgr. Marian Eleganti, said. “Because of anti-discrimination laws, we will be silenced and punished by court decisions,” as the platform Cath.ch reports.
That the Catholic Church refuses to speak clearly, LGBT circles regret it. “The Church must advocate equality and tolerance, and this is precisely what this standard pursues,” says Muriel Waeger, director of the main gay and lesbian organizations in Switzerland. But it is clear that as soon as the objects touch the LGBT community, the Catholic Church is on restraint. It is a shame, because this position does more harm to believing LGBT people than it does to the most conservative faithful. ”And to recall that the Reformed Church dares to go ahead on this subject.
In early January, in fact, the Council of the Reformed Church in Switzerland (CERS) voted in favor on February 9. A few months earlier, she also supported “marriage for all”. “A person’s sexual orientation must be understood as an expression of creative abundance,” writes even the ESRB. If people were discriminated against because of their sexual orientation, it would violate their dignity as creatures of God. ”
To this resolute commitment in favor of LGBT people, the Network of Evangelical Churches opposed a categorical no, evoking a “problematic and superfluous” norm. Fairly close to the UDF, the party that initiated the referendum, this coalition of evangelical churches fears that freedom of opinion will be violated. But not only. “If our network condemns any form of hatred and violence against people of any sexual orientation, it must nevertheless remain possible to adopt without hesitation a critical attitude towards certain lifestyles, in accordance with the understanding from the Bible. “
Midway
Between this “reformed” yes and this “evangelical” no, the ETUC fully assumes its middle path. Here is what Erwin Tanner, its secretary general, said at the end of the assembly that led to this decision. “If the Catholic Church had declared itself in favor of extending the legal norm, we would have questioned it on its attitude […]. If she had opposed it, she would have been presented as homophobic. ”
Created: 03.02.2020, 5:23 p.m.
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