Following their meeting on Tuesday, October 2, 2018, the Consultative Council of Religious Denominations in Romania issued a communique supporting the referendum that will be organized in Romania to change the constitutional definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman.
Communique by Consultative Council of Religious Denominations in Romania supporting marriage referendum: full text
Gathered on October 2, 2018, for its annual working session at the Palace of the Patriarchate under the chairmanship of His Grace Bishop Mihai Fratila of St Basil the Great Greek-Catholic Diocese of Bucharest, delegate of His Beatitude Cardinal Lucian Muresan, Major Archbishop of the Romanian Church United with Rome, Greek-Catholic, the Consultative Council of Religious Denominations in Romania welcomes with hope the decision to organize on October 6-7, 2018, a referendum to clarify the text of the Romanian Constitution, in the sense of amending the definition of marriage as ‘union between spouses,’ with the phrase ‘union between a man and a woman’.
The initiative which was started in 2015 by the Coalition for Family, including several organizations and associations of religious denominations in Romania, aimed to remove any ambiguity regarding the term ‘spouses’, stating that only the freely consented union between a man and a woman can be called marriage; more specifically, the term marriage could not be used but to define the reality of a stable union between a man and a woman.
In the Jewish tradition, even in the Torah, it is written that family must be a union between a man and a woman, and he who does not fulfil this commandment violates the faith in the One God.
According to Christian teaching, family founded on marriage between a man and a woman was blessed and honoured by our Saviour Jesus Christ through His presence, and that of his mother and disciples at the Wedding at Cana, where he miraculously turned water into wine (John 2:1-11), thus showing the sacred value of the conjugal family.
In the writings of Islam (Coran and Sunnah), family is defined as a union between a man and a woman, and the rights and responsibilities of each family member are detailed and defended.
In this regard, the Consultative Council of Religious Denominations in Romania reaffirms its support for the more precise definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, as it was already decided in its working session on June 20, 2013.
The natural and traditional family is therefore founded on the freely consented marriage between a man and a woman to cultivate mutual love and give birth to children. Only so understood, does family ensure the perpetuation of human society.
Wherefore, the Consultative Council of Religious Denominations in Romania urges all Romanian citizens to participate in this decision-making referendum and say YES to the family blessed by God, through which Romania’s future is safeguarded.
In democratic states, every citizen is actively involved in social life, especially when called upon to express his opinion by vote on a major bill.
The participation of Romanian citizens in this decision-making referendum to clearly define marriage in the Romanian Constitution is therefore a profoundly democratic act backed by the religious cults for affirming family as a human institution created and blessed by God the Creator of Universe and of man, according to the teachings of the monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Thus, the common witness of religious cults in Romania expresses their co-responsibility and cooperation for the benefit of Romanian society.
Secretariat of the Consultative Council of Religious Denominations in Romania
Photo: Lumina Newspaper
