A high-ranking Catholic bishop appointed by Pope Francis has invited the bishops of France to adapt its description of parents in the baptismal records of their diocese to accommodate the “increasingly complex situation of families” in the country.
Instead of listing each child’s mother and father, the “recommended” records would use a “catch-all” phrase and instead refer to “parents or other holders of parental authority.”
While this could be seen as a kind and hospitable gesture to families with, perhaps, single parents, or other family members acting as legal guardians, LifeSiteNews has a better idea of the real motivations behind the suggestion:
The suggested reform was likely conceived in view of the new situations created by the legalization of same-sex “marriage” in 2013 so as to avoid all accusations of “discrimination” that might result from the traditional wording of baptism certificates.
While the reform is merely “recommended,” it comes with the authority of Bishop Joseph de Metz-Noblat. His diocese, Langres in the east of France, is a relatively obscure one, but the bishop, appointed by Pope Francis in 2014, is president of the Council for canonical questions of the French bishops’ conference.
This indicates that Bishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, who presides over both the Permanent Council and the bishops’ conference, has assented to the proposed formulation which does away with the traditional concept of the normal and legitimate family in favor of a more fluid notion where many different models exist.
These range from the traditional “father-mother” model, married or not, to recomposed families or homosexual couples where children can since 2013 be legally adopted by the member or members of the couple who are not the biological parent of the child. With the current legislation being passed in the French Parliament allowing for medically assisted procreation for all women, civil birth registers are expected in the near future to include the mention of two “mothers” for children conceived within lesbian couples.
From where we’re standing, this looks like little more than another Christian institution bowing down to the LGBT agenda.
According to Fr. Claude Barthe, who first broke the news in the religious newsletter Res Novae last month, the issue has been deliberated within the church since 2013, the same year France legalized gay “marriage.” What a coincidence. Ironically, Barthe says, the promoter of the law at the time, Christiane Taubira, was still ridiculing opponents of the change who said the concept of fatherhood and motherhood was doomed to disappear from official documents.
“It is certain that we (…) will not use the terms parent 1 or parent 2,” she said in January 2013, responding to accusations by the “Manif pour tous” that the words “husband,” “wife,” “father,” and “mother” would surely be replaced in civil registers if same-sex “marriage” was made legal.
While civil and religious forms haven’t changed quite so drastically—yet—surely people like Taubira never foresaw the day when transgenders would shove gays and lesbians off of the pedestal and start demanding birth certificates with “X” for their gender and starting families with “female sperm donors.”
In Paris, left-wing populist “France insoumise” counselor Danielle Simonnet ushered in an amendment replacing “father” and “mother” with “parent 1” and “parent 2” on civil registers and records, though it is unclear if the changes have taken effect yet. Give it time.
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