Individuals have the right to refuse
performing tasks that violate their consciences, Pope Francis said
Monday, in apparent support of a U.S. county clerk who was jailed for
withholding marriage licenses from homosexual couples.
“I can say that conscientious objection
is a right and it is part of every human right. It is a right. And if a
person does not allow others to be a conscientious objector, he denies a
right,” Francis said on a return flight to Rome after a 10-day trip to
Cuba and the United States. “Conscientious objection must enter into
every juridical structure because it is a right, a human right.”
The pontiff made that remark after a
reporter in the press pool asked whether Francis supported individuals
who did not “discharge their duties as government officials” because of
personal beliefs.
His reference was to Kim Davis, clerk of
Rowan County in the central southern state of Kentucky. She was jailed
for several days in early September, on order of a U.S. District judge,
after refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court’s nine
justices ruled, in a 5-4 vote, that same-sex couples have a
constitutional right to marry.
But the Roman Catholic Church’s
traditional view on marriage is that it should be reserved for
heterosexual unions. Francis had just left Philadelphia after joining in
events there for the World Meeting of Families, sponsored by the
Vatican and Philadelphia Archdiocese.
Conscientious objection must be
supported legally, the pope said on the flight. “Otherwise, we would end
up in a situation where we select what is a right, saying: ‘This right
has merit, this one does not.'”
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