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December 03, 2008

Vatican: Gays Don't Need Protection Laws

The Vatican has come out against a United Nations resolution that calls on all governments to decriminalize homosexuality. The resolution, Archbishop Celestino Migliore said, would "add new categories of those protected from discrimination" and could lead to the decline of heterosexual marriage, Reuters reported Tuesday.

"If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations," Migliore said. "For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure."

France will propose the resolution this month on behalf of the 27-member European Union. The Vatican is not a member, but it uses the Euro.

"No other religion in the world is granted this type of status on the world stage," Catholics for Choice president Jon O'Brien told Advocate.com on Tuesday.

The Vatican has a nonvoting seat at the U.N., but the Holy See's opinions can be influential.

"Other major religions are granted a voice in the United Nations," O'Brien said, "but they're often treated as nongovernment organizations."

While more nations, especially those in Latin America, are moving toward separating church and state, the Vatican's stance may prompt other leaders from other religions to pressure political officials. Still, Catholicism is the only major religion with a mouthpiece at the U.N.

"You won't find an imam sitting at the U.N. pretending that they're a part of a state," O'Brien added. "You don't find that kind of manifestation in other world religions. We certainly have seen folks like the Mormons and those of extreme Muslim beliefs and überconservatives backed by the Vatican trying to form a lobby together."

Italian newspaper La Stampa said the city-state's stance was "grotesque," figuring that the Vatican feared a chain reaction in legally instituting marriage equality, especially in Italy, where there is no law banning same-sex marriage.

"The French resolution ... has nothing to do with gay marriage. It is about stopping jail and the death penalty for homosexuals," Franco Grillini, president of Italy's leading gay rights activist organization Arcigay, told Reuters.

Homosexuality is still punishable in at least 85 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, and Ghana. Some countries kill those who are found guilty of such an offense.

All the European Union member nations have backed France's proposed resolution. Just this past weekend, the Catholic Church in England and Wales urged priests and churchgoers to be tolerant and welcoming to LGBT people in a new pamphlet being distributed across the country.

"The laudable change of tone is undermined by the homophobic content of the Catholic catechism and by the pope's frequent endorsement of legal discrimination against lesbian and gay people," U.K. gay rights advocate Peter Tatchell said in a statement on Monday. "The Vatican's policy of denouncing loving, stable same-sex relationships risks undoing the good, kind intentions of this leaflet." (Michelle Garcia, Advocate.com)

Reader Comments

These comments are reproduced as written by visitors to this Web site. They have not been edited for content, grammar, or spelling. The viewpoints appearing here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of advocate.com, The Advocate, or its affiliates.

Name: tj
Date posted: 2008-12-08 8:05 PM
Hometown: wyoming

Comment:

Hey Bill 12-03 Boston, If you come back and read this: (This "Comments" feature--Thanks Advocate!-- bout triples my reading time, so I just saw your question): Any anti-Catholic issues triggered in you (personal issues for you to deal with) are likely equaled by this friend's conflicts over practicing/ identifying both gay and Catholic. Could take years for him to build the trust to deal openly w/ it, and his "family" may never support him. Make your contacts respectful of his health, leave him room to work it out w/ his friend (s, of which you could be one) and the family you all build by effort and communication. Hope this helps.

Name: Jay Dwyer
Date posted: 2008-12-04 9:25 AM
Hometown: San Francisco

Comment:

By being humane to the Catholic church and all communities of faith, the rest of us are vulnerable to aggressive actions brought forward by them. This is likely always going to be a fight. That's okay - I would rather get bloodied in an all out battle with a known enemy than get knifed in the back from a friend. But what concerns me is that, like so many other religious institutions headed up by so-called "spiritual leaders," the Catholic Church is holding it's flock spiritually hostage to this ideology. There isn't a decent human being in the world who cannot possibly come into personal conflict and crisis when they try to reconcile their faith in their deity with their church's political ideology of exclusion, demonization, and vitriol couched as the loving words of a god! I pray for good people of faith who have such a battle waging in the soul...I pray that they hold to what they know to be good and reject what they are TOLD is bad!

Name: Jadan
Date posted: 2008-12-03 7:45 PM
Hometown: San Diego, California

Comment:

Please let Dave from Charlotte be an example of how not fight the opposition. To condem an entire group/race while ridiculing someone for doing the same, is fighting ignorance with ignorance. To imply that some other group/race is beneath you is utterly disgusting. Also to imply that all gays are white men and apparently all non white, non male homosexual are beasts is equally disgusting. If you cannot accept the fact that there are gays of all colors and nationalities(even in Africa) you cannot expect acceptance from others. I've been to Africa 3 times in my life and found nothing uncivilized about the countries I've visited. Maybe one should take a trip before one makes such claims.

Name: Daniel
Date posted: 2008-12-03 3:44 PM
Hometown: New Hope, PA

Comment:

By the same token I don't believe that Catholics, or any religion, don't need protection laws or any special treatment or privileges. For example, the way that high-ranking clergy have managed to escape prosecution for conspiracy to cover up sex crimes committed by priests is an inappropriate extension of special rights to the Church. The Vatican is packed with bigots, I get that. But it's statements like this, when LGBT people are commonly the victims of everything from legalized murder to socially-sanctioned discrimination, is nothing less than an outright declaration of contempt and hatred as well as extraordinary elitism.

Name: Granny
Date posted: 2008-12-03 3:43 PM
Hometown: Menifee, CA

Comment:

I have been a Roman Catholic since birth. I know the practice they have about Catholics reproducing like bunny rabbits. That seems the only reason they want only straights to marry. However, artificial insemination is forbidden. I am in my later years now but if I were a young person again I would not choose to join this church. I went to Confession last week and the examination of conscience mentioned voting with one's conscience. When I went to talk to the priest I introduced myself as a "disorderd" person (by the Pope's definition) and I said that I did vote my conscience and I voted NO on Prop 8. I told the priest that I have difficulty with the Church infusing politics into the religion. I hope I at least gave him something to think about from a Gay Catholic's perspective. I was not pressured to change my beliefs or philosophy. Maybe more of our Gay Catholics should try talking to their Priests and give them the opportunity to understand who we really are as persons.

Name: anthony
Date posted: 2008-12-03 1:08 PM
Hometown: dublin ireland

Comment:

Wow, the Pope makes homophobic statement! amazing stuff! gays everywhere in shock and discord, no actually if the Pope made anykind of supportive statement of gays, the first 2 lines of this message would be correct, but his history is that of a very wright-wing GWBush supporter, it's interesting to note that your shock would be better used on Bono, who became friends with the lovely Bush, Praised the Pope and gave him his sunglassess, and even enjoined that thing called Jessie Helms - sending a message of regret on the death of the wicked-witch for his life of work, this life of work Bono likes to praise was spent spreading hate and fear against African Americans in the 50s/60s/70s where upon in the 80s his venom turned on gays, a

Name: Jen Marcus
Date posted: 2008-12-03 1:05 PM
Hometown: Royal Oak MI

Comment:

Consistent with its history, the Catholic Church hierarchy ios “out of step” with science, culture and civilization. The sad part about it is that it also acts contrary to the teachings of Christ :His Law of Love as explicated by the Beatitudes.These blatant contradictions have historicaly martyred and excommunicated many of its own followers and Saints who had the courage to challenge its hypocritical authority and behavior . If Christ came back today, He would undoubetdly disassociate Himself with such an institution, or any other religous or secular institution that espouses and teaches hate, bigotry, and emotional and physical violence against any part of humanity: We Are ALL God’s Children!

Name: Jen Marcus
Date posted: 2008-12-03 12:57 PM
Hometown: Royal Oak MI

Comment:

Consistent with its history, the Catholic Church hierarchy is "out of step" with science, culture and civilization. The sad part about it is that it also acts contrary to the teachings of Christ :His law of Love as explicated by the Beatitudes.These blatant contradictions have historicaly martyred and excommunicated many of its own followers and Saints who had the courage to challenge its hypocritical authority and behaviour . If Christ came back today, He would undoubetdly disassociate Himself with such an institution, or any other religous or secular institution that espouses and teaches hate, bigotry, and emotional and physical violence against any part of humanity: We Are All God's Children!

Name: Roland Rogers
Date posted: 2008-12-03 12:52 PM
Hometown: Fall River, MA

Comment:

As it has for centuries, "Holy Mother, the Church" is attempting to rule and hold on to power and control over people by using guilt and intolerance. The Pope must have learned a valuable lesson in power grabbing from the Nazis in his youth. IE. Villify a minority group and the masses follow because you can make them feel superior. How they can pervert the teachings of Jesus; who preached tolerance, respect and forgiveness for every human being, is simply incomprehensible. Religion has been the historic excuse for the most horrible persecutions in history and it continues stronger than ever today. The terrorists do their work in the name of their god. Governments persecute people and kill them for who they are. And the Catholic Church is saying: no, don't speak against that behavior; don't try to stop it; I'll be happy to throw the first stone!

Name: RonK
Date posted: 2008-12-03 11:23 AM
Hometown: Clifton, NJ

Comment:

I don't get it! Both Nigeria and the Philippines have histories of societal acceptance of homosexuals which were lost when the Muslims invaded Africa and the Christian missionaries invaded the Philippines and both societies lost these 'live and let live' philosophies. Both of these societies enslaved their own, by the way, before outside influences taught them how to make monies from it. And, it is the basic tenet of these age old ancestral societies, rooted in paganism, that was the framework for 'Christianity', created whole cloth at the First Council of Nicaea, convoked by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine I in 325. It is indeed ironic that in olden times homosexuals were 'special' people with innate spiritual powers, revered and respected by their communities, until organized religion arrived to supplant ancestral worship and to vilify us.

Name: Carlos
Date posted: 2008-12-03 9:46 AM
Hometown: Miami

Comment:

And yes shamefully this is the same Vatican that supported the Nazis and who's current pope was a member of the Nazi youth. When will they learn? Dear catholics. This is the 21st centuary and not the dark ages. Why do you Catholics hate so much. You seem to contradict everything the bible is supposed to be about. Aristotle said, "A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side" Some day the tables will turn on the Catholics and they will see the error of their ungodly ways (and that goes to other oppressive religions too).

Name: john in SF
Date posted: 2008-12-03 7:04 AM
Hometown: San Francisco

Comment:

This church is evil and filled with people of hate like the column below of "Destiny Tony". How long will it take people to realize that all of these religions are evil? Try to look at it this way. If you exchanged the name "Catholic" with the name "Tony" for example, and then read the history. "Tony" killed thousands of people during the Inqusition. "Tony" massacred thousands of South Am. indians during its invasion. "Tony" helped Franco and his fascist government take control of Spain during the civil war. "Tony" traficked numerous fascists to South Am. after Hitler's fall. "Tony" has raped thousands of young boys. WOuld you even hesitate to condemn this person to death? Yet, a man in a dress runs a group that has done all of those things, yet, we are supposed to revere this group. These religions are an abomination and deserve to be stricken from the earth. In reality these people should hope that there is no god, because if there is, they are in big trouble.

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