Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Spurious EU funded Dublin Conference

The Catholic Voice newspaper (15 August 2010) reports that the European Union is funding a conference in Dublin in September, entitled ‘Voices of Children’. Very good and proper, you might say. However, the conference will be hosted by a group called ‘Marriage Equality’. This group was set up to promote the ‘Civil Partnership … Act’, and to fight for the status of marriage to be granted to homosexuals and lesbians.

The ‘Civil Partnership … Act’, the group says, doesn’t go far enough for them as it doesn’t yet recognise homosexual ‘marriage’, nor does it allow for the adoption of children on the part of homosexuals and lesbians. The October conference is being held to promote the legalisation of adoption of children by such people. Rónán Mullen, the Independent senator, who was one of only the four senators who spoke against the enactment of the ‘Civil Partnership … Act’ last month, points out that European Union and Irish Government officials have repeatedly claimed that social and ethical issues, including laws on marriage and the family, are matters for member states and are outside the competence of the EU. So much for Government promises!

Senator Mullen continues:
‘The funding of this conference highlights an issue that caused many Irish voters to reject the Lisbon Treaty – the problem of “competence creep” in the European Union. This happens when European institutions such as the European Commission and the European Court of Justice (ECJ) extend their policy and decision-making into areas that are supposed to be matters for individual member states.’
It is indeed a very sad, and serious, state of affairs when a government such as the Irish Government overrides the stated wishes of the people and steamrolls the agenda of a minority but powerful group whose stated aim it is to destroy the family.