Romania: Catholic Bishops to Romanian MEPs, “vote against the Matić Report”

“Those who politically represent our values and social interests” must “promote the values of human dignity, support families and respect life”, state the Catholic Bishops of Romania, who asked the Rumanian MEPs to vote against the Matić Report. “We are not indifferent to who represents us and how he represents us”, pointed out mgr. Aurel Percă, metropolitan archbishop of Bucharest and president of the Rumanian Bishops’ Conference (Cer), who, on behalf of the Catholic Church of Romania, made an appeal to the Romanian MEPs. The Romanian Bishops’ document mentions the Comece Bishops’ Statement and the Minority Opinion on the Matić Report and reasserts the lesson of the Church on human life and dignity. “Conscientious objection – they add – is a fundamental right protected by article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)”, and they state that “there is no fundamental right to abortion, and no unborn baby should be left out of the protection granted by the right to life under the ECHR”. Last February, the Commission for Education of the Rumanian Bishops’ Conference had taken position about the addition of sex education to the school curriculum as a compulsory subject. Back then, mgr. Percă had voiced the Romanian Catholic Bishops’ concern and asked to leave such subject as an optional one, to involve parents, and to respect the moral and religious principles of the students’ families. On June 22nd, the Rumanian Orthodox Patriarchate reported pressures and asked that the Romanian school curriculum be “disjoined from any kind of ideology”.
Valentina Bombelli