The Belgian diocese of Liège has denounced as a destructive homophobic act the defacing of two photographs in its exhibition on modern families in its cathedral.
One image showed two men and a boy. The message “the family model is a man and a woman, together they give life” was scrawled across the photographs.
“We in no way endorse this homophobic act,” Anne Van Linthout-Locht, head of the Diocesan Service for Couples and Families, wrote in the name of Bishop Jean-Pierre Delville.
“Some people may not be at ease with all types of these families … some may be frightened by what seems to them to go against God’s plan for Man. But we cannot accept that this is expressed violently,” she said.
The exhibition, “Family with 1,000 faces”, aimed to show the Church was tolerant toward different modern forms of family.
“Ordinary families, single parents, gay parents, stepfamilies, mixed families, expecting children, bound by marriage or not,” the statement said. “They are first and foremost stories of love, and that should be enough to make us rejoice.”
The photographer has filed a complaint with the police. Diocesan staff are checking surveillance cameras to see if a suspect was filmed.
The incident came two weeks after Belgium’s Flemish-speaking bishops backed a blessing for same-sex couples, a first in the Catholic world.
Liège, where French and German predominate, issued a pamphlet last year hoping that “everyone can experience a Church that accompanies its members with good will.”
These initiatives have met opposition on social media, where critics point out the Vatican has officially ruled out same-sex unions.
In other Belgian news, the European Court of Human Rights has found Belgium violated the legal right to life for improperly reviewing the case of a women euthanised for “incurable depression.”
The ECHR in Strasbourg did not challenge euthanasia, which Belgium legalised in 2002, but the faulty post-mortem review carried out in this case by medical personnel with conflicts of interest.
It said the cancer doctor who carried out Godelieva de Troyer's wish to die was also head of the review board tasked to give an independent post-mortem judgment of the case.
“This ruling serves as stark reminder,“ said Robert Clarke, the prosecution lawyer for Tom Mortier, who was not even informed until after his mother’s death. “It is clear that the so-called ‘safeguards’ failed because intentional killing can never be safe.”
Loading ...
