Croatia's Catholic bishops have condemned a Constitutional Court ruling extending equal rights to same-sex couples, insisting it violates "culture and tradition" in the traditionally Catholic country.
"In practice this opens the door to adoption of children by homosexual couples – and this conflicts with our country's culture and tradition, as shared by the decisive majority of society, in which families are composed of a father, a mother and children", said the Bishops Conference's Iustitia et Pax Commission.
"This is an unacceptable interference by the judicial power into the competence of the legislative authority, a violation of the separation of powers".
The Commission was reacting to a final ruling by the Court, which said relevant authorities should grant equal opportunities to "all competent fostering appliers", including couples "living in informal life partnerships".
Justifying the judgment, the Constitutional Court president, Miroslav Separovic, said the country's current Foster Care Law had "general discriminatory effects" on same-sex couples and was incompatible with norms in the European Union, whose rotating presidency is currently held by Croatia.
However, this was rejected by the bishops' Commission, which said the welfare of children appeared to have been sacrificed to "so-called contemporary values of gender equality and non-discrimination over sexual orientations". It added that the "rights of the youngest" should take priority over the "interests of adults", and said "possessing children" had never constituted a legal right or duty. The Court ruling indicated an attempt "to adapt to influences and tendencies of the liberal court system currently predominating in Europe", the Commission said.
The Catholic Church makes up 86 percent of Croatia's population of 4.4 million, according to census data, and has enjoyed good relations with the centre-right government of premier Andrej Plenkovic, in power since October 2016, who met the Pope during a 6 February private Vatican visit, along with family including wife and children.
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