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A top religious official in Ecuador said Monday that the country's newly approved draft constitution is incompatible with the Roman Catholic faith because of its provisions on abortion and same-sex unions. A special assembly controlled by leftist President Rafael Correa's political movement approved the 444-article constitution last week.
The charter must still be put to a national referendum on Sept. 28.
Correa says the new constitution is needed to wrest power from Ecuador's widely discredited political elite, but critics contend it would concentrate too much power in Correa's hands.
Monsignor Antonio Arregui, president of the Ecuadorean Episcopal Conference, criticized the draft charter for ambiguous abortion laws and granting same-sex unions the same benefits afforded in heterosexual marriages.
"A union between homosexuals is not a family," Arregui said in a news conference Monday.
"We're going to request that the entire Christian conscience takes note of the nonnegotiable incompatibilities of this constitution with our faith," he said.
Arregui also said the draft constitution failed to clearly outlaw abortion, "leaving the door open to the deletion of a new baby."
But Arregui said the church did not plan to campaign for voters to reject the constitution on Sept. 28.
More than 90% of Ecuador's nearly 14 million people are Catholic.
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