Ecumenical Service to support repeal of Section 59 will not include country's Catholic bishops
News release
Tuesday 1 May 2007

Contrary to suggestions in news reports earlier today, the Catholic bishops of New Zealand will not be attending the ecumenical service to be held tomorrow (Wednesday) in Wellington’s Anglican cathedral.

Last week, the Catholic bishops issued a statement about the need to protect children against violence. They were critical of the legal status quo where parents have been able to defend violence against children as ‘reasonable force’ under the Crimes Act, which has not given adequate protection to children. At the same time they wrote that government should respect and not interfere unnecessarily with decisions that families are able to make for themselves, unless a child’s safety is at risk. They do not see minor and infrequent acts of physical punishment as putting a child’s safety at risk.

The bishops call on government support and education to help parents make the best possible decisions for the upbringing of their children.

They believe that the extremely polarised positions dominating the public debate, endorsing either violence against children in the name of discipline, or seeking the elimination of minor or intermittent acts of physical restraint of children by their parents, are unhelpful.

Last year, Caritas, the Catholic Church Agency for Justice, Peace and Development, supported neither the status quo nor full repeal of the Bill. They called for more clarity and definition about the threshhold for police prosecution of parents using physical punishment.

While recognising that there are better means of discipline than physical punishment, Caritas does not believe that parents should be prosecuted for minor or intermittent acts of physical punishment of children, and if that is the government’s intention, the law should say so.

ENDS

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