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Address to the Pontifical Council
Cor Unum
, Jan. 19, 2013). This affirma-
tion in no way compromises the Church’s opposition to unjust discrimination
against those who experience “deep-seated homosexual tendencies,” who
“must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity” (
Catechism of the
Catholic Church
, no. 2358).
Policies on taxes, work, divorce, immigration, and welfare should uphold
the God-given meaning and value of marriage and family, help families stay
together, and reward responsibility and sacrifice for children.
Wages
should
allow workers to support their families, and public assistance should be avail-
able to help poor families to live in dignity. Such assistance should be pro-
vided in a manner that promotes eventual financial autonomy.
71.
Children
, in particular, are to be valued, protected, and nurtured. As a
Church, we affirm our commitment to the protection and well-being of chil-
dren in our own institutions and in all of society. Pope Francis has stressed,
“Children have a right to grow up in a family with a father and a mother
capable of creating a suitable environment for the child’s development and
emotional maturity” (Address on the Complementarity Between Man and
Woman, Nov. 17, 2014). Children who may be placed in foster care or with
adoptive parents have a right to be placed in homes with a married man and
woman, or if not possible, in environments that do not contradict the authen-
tic meaning of marriage. Child welfare service providers, consistent with their
religious beliefs, have a right to place children in such homes rather than in
other environments. We oppose contraceptive and abortion mandates in pub-
lic programs and health plans, which endanger rights of conscience and can
interfere with parents’ right to guide the moral formation of their children.
Religious Freedom
72. US policy should promote
religious liberty
vigorously, both at home and
abroad: our first and most cherished freedom is rooted in the very dignity of
the human person, a fundamental human right that knows no geographi-
cal boundaries. In all contexts, its basic contours are the same: it is the
“immun[ity] from coercion on the part of individuals or of social groups and of
any human power, in such wise that no one is to be forced to act in a manner
contrary to his own beliefs, whether privately or publicly, whether alone or in
association with others, within due limits.” (
Dignitatis Humanae
, no. 2). In the
United States, religious freedom generally enjoys strong protection in our law
and culture, but those protections are now in doubt. For example, the long-
standing tax exemption of the Church has been explicitly called into question