EU lawyers warn: Concordats endanger human rights

EU lawyers warn:
Concordats endanger human rights
 

 Concordats help enforce Canon Law, the Vatican version of Sharia

Under Canon Law wife beating is no ground for divorce — in fact, nothing is. Therefore if you’ve been married in a Catholic Church, which means under Canon Law, you may find that a concordat has deprived you of your right to a civil divorce. The Polish concordat phrases it with great delicacy (1993, Article 10.2), calling for the state to put in place the enabling legislation which would enforce “concordat marriage”. But the Dominican one (1954, Article 15.2) says explicitly that people married in a Catholic church, and therefore under Canon Law, may never file for a divorce.

Concordat marriage was also the rule under dictators of the past. The 1940 Portuguese one concluded with Salazar prescribed this for all Catholics: anyone wanting a divorce had to leave the church, but at least divorce was legal. However, divorce was impossible under both the Italian concordat with Mussolini (1929, Art. 34) and the Spanish one with Franco, (1953, Art. 23-25). It is still impossible in Malta, and the 1993 Marriage Concordat is meant to keep it that way. Now the Vatican is trying, where it can, to bring back concordat marriage elsewhere.

 Other concordat clauses enforce Canon Law on the employees of Church-run institutions, even though these are funded by the state. For example, the concordat with Hitler (1933, Article 24) is used to this day to fire teachers in Catholic schools if they remarry after a civil divorce.

Through these intimidated Church employees, concordats can be used to enforce Canon Law on the general public. The Slovak “conscience concordat” would have prevented doctors in Church-run hospitals from performing abortions or nurses from giving out information about family planning, since it gave them the “right” to claim that this went against their religious conscience. And, of course, if they didn’t exercise this “right” to impose Canon Law on others, they’d lose their jobs. In a rural area where the only hospital may be Church-run, this can effectively limit access to what are in Slovakia perfectly legal services.

At this point legal experts appointed by the European Union put their foot down. They stated firmly that denying access to such services, Canon Law or no Canon Law, was a violation of international Human Rights. Read more…

Source:http://www.concordatwatch.eu/

Note: Highlights, Bolds and Underscores added.