Proposals of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias to the Russian Government to Improve the National Policy on Family and Child Care

Proposals in Opposition to Abortion:

1. The RF Health Ministry should issue departmental instructions that would make the conservation of pregnancy a priority task for all physicians, and forbid medical initiatives for its termination, prescribing mandatory instructions to acquaint women with all the negative consequences and risks of abortion.
2. Following the example of other developed foreign countries, we should introduce into all our health facilities a mandatory two-week waiting period after the registration of “informed consent”… a document signed by the woman before committing an abortion. In plain language, the document should describe what happens to the foetus and the woman in an abortion, but should also provide comprehensive information about the dangers and the risks associated with abortion.
3. Create a crisis pregnancy centre in each maternity hospital, with a psychologist and representatives of traditional religions. Women wishing to terminate a pregnancy should be referred here for an interview.
4. Create a network of shelters for single mothers who find themselves in difficult situations. The state should provide the space and resources to build such centres, and the Church could help in the preparation of their employees, especially volunteer sisters of mercy.
5. Remove terminations of pregnancy (except in cases of direct threat to the mother’s life) from the health insurance system.
6. Exclude performing abortions at the expense of taxpayers, especially the principled opponents of abortion.
7. Enter into the curricula of secondary schools materials explaining the process of development of the child in the womb.
8. Provide state support for media campaigns to condemn abortion, explaining its negative effects; it should also promote responsible motherhood and fatherhood, and encourage the birth and care of many children [per family].

Proposals in Support of Families with Many Children:

1. Equate the work of mothers in raising their children to other socially useful work, establishing, in particular, the benefits of large families (subject to social adaptation of the family) at the level of the average wage for the region, inserting a period of time during which a woman receives such benefits, including contributions for her old age pension.
2. Create housing projects for large families, taking into account proximity to educational infrastructure.
3. Establish mechanisms to encourage employers to provide special allowances to their staff, including assistance to families with children in their benefits package.
4. Provide cash or other substantial material content in the presentation of State awards to the mothers and fathers of families with many children.
5. Make provision in federal law for the right of families with many children to take summer holidays as a family, and erect the financial mechanisms to ensure this right.
6. Develop a special health insurance program for large families.

Proposals to Aid Children Left Without Parental Care:

1. Encourage the establishment of boards of trustees for children’s homes, consisting of representatives of public organisations and traditional religions. Make the system of care for children left without parental care more transparent via the participation of volunteers and oversight from leading social and religious organisations.
2. Allow, through requisite legislation, the opportunity for not only a secular, but also a traditional religious, upbringing of children in orphanages, subject to the rights of the child and health standards. Recognise the right of the child on a spiritual life and participation in the Church’s sacraments, worship, and parish activities, and develop appropriate legal mechanisms for implementing this right. Provide among the varieties of so-called temporary custody, along with vacations and allowing them to be guests outside the home, a temporary guardianship to allow them to attend religious services.
3. Develop amongst the standards of life in an orphanage the possibility of a child having an outside mentor, once a child reaches a certain age, taking into account the child’s wishes and health standards.
4. Provide learning opportunities for children living in orphanages, so that they acquire necessary domestic skills such as cooking, cleaning, planning, and making provision for daily life.
5. Provide ways to encourage employers to offer jobs to graduates of orphanages.
6. Conduct an active information policy of promoting state adoption services for children.

Proposals for Legislation Relating to the Protection of Families and Children:

1. Give each family the legal right to decide matters concerning their internal life.
2. Enact legislative measures to create additional safeguards for the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, including the formation of their worldview and lifestyle, to help protect them from dangerous and immoral behaviour, regulation of their daily regimen, the performance of their religious duties, relations with the opposite sex, and the regulation of educational, print, audio, and video materials, and access to Internet sites.
3. Exclude the appearance of laws and regulations with non-specific grounds for intervention in family life, such as “inadequate training”, ”low material level“, and “psychological violence”. Laws should have more specific and relevant provisions.
4. Review the work of the guardianship, particularly cases of unjustified and interfering intervention in the internal affairs of the family. Develop effective mechanisms to help troubled and needy families, not just the removal of their children. Formulate as a priority the task of keeping the family together.
5. Strictly minimise and clearly define in the legislation the conditions under which extrajudicial seizure of children from families can occur. Currently, many controversial cases of seizures received wide publicity; fuzzy definition of the rights and duties of guardianship in this situation led to this situation, as well as vague criteria for the removal of the child.

16 January 2011

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=documents&div=1075

Editor’s Note:

There one has it, in less than a thousand words! Furthermore, it’s in straightforward language, accessible to all literate people. His Holiness links opposition to abortion with aid to families and children… that’s why the GOP ISN’T pro-life in the slightest way. They REFUSE to enact sensible family legislation… it would mean that their rich paymasters would have to pay more taxes… boo hoo!

His Holiness is clear. The state should pay benefits to mothers… the state should help large families with housing costs… the state should aid large families in taking their holidays together… the state should pay for shelters for troubled pregnant women… and that’s not all. In short, the Republican Party stands against this list… ergo, they stand against His Holiness and the Church. If they stand against the Church, they stand against Christ. Think very deeply on that before you support any portion of the GOP programme. If you have any doubts, read over this list of proposals.

You can have His Holiness or you can have Rush Limbaugh… is that a no-brainer or what? I know where I stand… what about you?

BMD