Joseph S. O'Leary homepage:

Yet Another Vatican Gay Furore

UPDATE

See now the profound and balanced reflection of James Alison: http://www.jamesalison.co.uk/texts/eng53.html (who oddly spells the Pope's first name as 'Jozef'; only 'Joseph' is correct). Comment at http://queeringthechurch.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/holy-spirit-at-work-james-alison/#more-891 http://salusanimarum.blogspot.com/2009/02/mental-hygiene-for-gay-catholics.html http://thewildreed.blogspot.com/2009/02/something-for-our-mental-hygiene-as-gay.html http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=2823

The Irish Times reports a huge rate of suicide among Irish gays. Let us not forget that the comedy of church hypocrisy has a tragic lining. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0210/1233867929596.html

Here is a good piece from another European island: http://www2.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=83109

The Vatican have now discovered an even more frightening threat to the environment than homosexuality: hormones in the urine of women on the pill are causing male infertility!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090103/hl_afp/vaticanreligioncontraception_090103212901

http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2009/01/05/le-vatican-denonce-les-effets-devastateurs-de-la-pilule-sur-l-environnement_1137972_3244.html. http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/humannature/archive/2009/01/07/the-curse-of-women-s-urine.aspx

http://www.golias-editions.fr/spip.php?article2590

***

Slowly but surely, throughout the Catholic world, a vast, quiet rethink is going on on the subject of homosexuality. Here is one sign of it:

http://www.monografias.com/trabajos51/iglesia-homosexualidad/iglesia-homosexualidad2.shtml#opin

The Church has wrongfooted itself by obsessing about the alleged "intrinsically immoral" character of homosexual acts, missing the big picture -- namely the value of loving intimacy. As a result it has condemned many people to lives of sterile loneliness and promiscuity. Gay couples are springing up everywhere now, and are teaching the Church the possibility and reality of love, something the Church should have been teaching them. The false teaching that has wreaked such havoc is more than an embarrassment: it is a scandal. Just as the Church has learnt to apologize for centuries of antisemitism, so it must learn to apologize for centuries of lethal Catholic homophobia.

***

The recent controversy about a papal comment in the annual Christmas address to the Curia may have seemed a wild tangent, but it is symptomatic of the impatience that the Vatican's wooden repetitions are creating. Particularly telling is the way hardly anyone bothers to defend the Vatican in these mini-controversies; apathy and aversion to this "bureaucracy of nothing" are widespread among Catholics and their clergy, and may lie behind the dramatic fall in attendance at papal events in 2008 -- a fall that worries the Vatican personnel in part for its financial implications.

Here is the papal remark that ignited the latest controversy:

‘Since faith in the Creator is an essential part of the Christian Credo, the Church cannot and should not rest content with addressing to its faithful the message of salvation. She has a responsibility for the creation and must uphold this responsibility publicly as well. In doing so, she must not only defend the earth, water and air as gifts of creation belonging to all. It is necessary that there be something like an ecology of Man, understood in the right sense. It is not an outdated metaphysics that has the Church speak of the nature of the human being as man and woman and ask that this order of creation be respected. What is at stake is belief in the Creator and hearing the language of creation, to disrespect which would be a self-destruction of Man and thus a destruction of the very work of God. What is often expressed and understood by the concept of “gender” conduces to the self-emancipation of Man from the creation and the Creator. Man wants to create himself and to dispose of his own as he sees fit. But in this fashion he lives against the truth, he lives against the creator Spirit. The tropical forests indeed deserve our protection, but Man deserves it no less as a creature to whom is inscribed a message that does not signify a contradiction to our liberty but its condition. Great scholastic theologians have qualified marriage. the lifelong bond of man and woman, as the sacrament of creation, which the Creator himself instituted and which Christ – without altering the message of creation, then took up into salvation history as a sacrament of the New Covenant.’

The original German reads: ‘Weil der Glaube an den Schöpfer ein wesentlicher Teil des christlichen Credo ist, kann und darf sich die Kirche nicht damit begnügen, ihren Gläubigen die Botschaft des Heils auszurichten. Sie trägt Verantwortung für die Schöpfung und muß diese Verantwortung auch öffentlich zur Geltung bringen. Und sie muß dabei nicht nur die Erde, das Wasser und die Luft als Schöpfungsgaben verteidigen, die allen gehören. Sie muß auch den Menschen gegen die Zerstörung seiner selbst schützen. Es muß so etwas wie eine Ökologie des Menschen im recht verstandenen Sinn geben. Es ist nicht überholte Metaphysik, wenn die Kirche von der Natur des Menschen als Mann und Frau redet und das Achten dieser Schöpfungsordnung einfordert. Da geht es in der Tat um den Glauben an den Schöpfer und das Hören auf die Sprache der Schöpfung, die zu mißachten Selbstzerstörung des Menschen und so Zerstörung von Gottes eigenem Werk sein würde. Was in dem Begriff “Gender” vielfach gesagt und gemeint wird, läuft letztlich auf die Selbstemanzipation des Menschen von der Schöpfung und vom Schöpfer hinaus. Der Mensch will sich nur selber machen und sein Eigenes immer nur selbst bestimmen. Aber so lebt er gegen die Wahrheit, lebt gegen den Schöpfergeist. Die Regenwälder verdienen unseren Schutz, ja, aber nicht weniger der Mensch als Geschöpf, dem eine Botschaft eingeschrieben ist, die nicht Gegensatz zu unserer Freiheit, sondern ihre Bedingung bedeutet. Große Theologen der Scholastik haben die Ehe, die lebenslange Verbindung von Mann und Frau als Schöpfungssakrament bezeichnet, das der Schöpfer selbst eingesetzt und das Christus dann – ohne die Schöpfungsbotschaft zu verändern – in die Heilsgeschichte als Sakrament des Neuen Bundes aufgenommen hat.’ http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008/december/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20081222_curia-romana_ge.html

America magazine glosses: ‘By “self-destruction,” the pope said he meant “contempt for the Creator,” and he said examples could be found in so-called “gender” issues today. He offered a case in point: Marriage as a permanent union between a man and a woman was something instituted by God as “the sacrament of creation.”‘ http://www.americamagazine.org/blog/entry.cfm?blog_id=2&id=603830D3-1438-5036-4F5E0C8022A6327E. Fr Lombardi, SJ, the Vatican press spokesperson, has been busy again pointing out that the papal address makes no reference to gays or lesbians, but people are ready to read between the lines and beyond the lines, often with a wildness that may make the Pope regret the accuracy and courtesy of his theological critics over the last forty years. A wider world is becoming aware of the style of sterile and divisive provocation that has been the hallmark of the Vatican, especially the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which the charisma of John Paul II his from view for decades. The wider masses are now beginning to understand what theologians have been whining about for decades.

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission reacted to the papal statement: ‘In a season in which the immorality of genocide, lawless governments, lust for money and power and the destabilization of the world’s economy are destroying the lives of hundreds of millions around the world, the Pope’s obsessive focus on gay, lesbian and trans people who simply seek the right to live and love is out of touch with what humanity needs right now from its religious leaders.’ Andrew Sullivan wrote: ‘Benedict has gone out of his way to issue what can only be called calculated affronts to the dignity of homosexual persons. Yesterday’s statement that humankind needs “saving” from homosexuality, the way the rainforests need saving from being raped and pillaged is his latest provocation. His first-in-history attempt to ban even celibate gay seminarians is easily the most draconian and hateful anti-gay policy of any church, stigmatizing them even if they agree to obey every stricture the church places on them.’

Readers of La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera expressed irritation: http://www.corriere.it/politica/08_dicembre_22/papa_gender_uomo_donna_aaaa2fc0-d015-11dd-b6ee-00144f02aabc.shtml; http://www.repubblica.it/2008/12/sezioni/esteri/papa-popstar/papa-popstar/papa-popstar.html. So did readers of The Guardian, The Daily Mail and The Independent:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/24/pope-speech-gender-gay-sexuality; http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/24/pope-benedict-christmas-message;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/dec/23/pope

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/dec/24/pope-benedict-xvi-gender

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1100422/Homosexuality-great-threat-rainforest-destruction-says-Pope.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/meditation-on-gender-lands-pope-in-hot-water-1210064.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/deborah-orr/deborah-orr-weve-had-few-words-of-comfort-this-year-and-the-popes-not-helping-1209956.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/philip-hensher/philip-hensher-this-hatred-will-not-defeat-love-1210063.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/letters/letters-the-popes-christmas-message-1209961.html

Paul Vallely claimed that the Pope’s point was lost in translation:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/paul-vallely-theological-point-that-was-lost-in-translation-1210065.html

As with the Regensburg address, it was stressed that the Pope's remarks could be understood only in the context of his whole speech: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090115/local/manipulative-reports-of-popes-message-disappoint-archbishop

Ruth Gledhill commented: ‘The strength of the reaction against his remarks from bloggers and other online commentators worldwide gave one of the clearest indications to date that the row over gays that has taken the Anglican Church almost to a schism is one that is close to erupting in the more tightly ruled Roman Catholic Church as well.’

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5391794.ece

In a Commonweal combox, biblical scholar Vincent M. Smiles wrote: 'I find the Pope’s stance on homosexuality (and the same has to be said of numerous Vatican statements going back to PERSONA HUMANA – 1975) scandalous in the full theological sense of the term (“stumbling block” to faith). GAUDIUM ET SPES (1965 - #62) requires that “in pastoral care, sufficient use must be made not only of theological principles, but also of the findings of the secular sciences, especially of psychology and sociology,” but this principle is utterly ignored in Vatican pronouncements regarding GLBT people; there is not even an attempt to engage the evidence or to show some hesitation or humility in face of its challenges. This doctrine against GLBT people is offered as though there were nothing in Catholic tradition that might give us pause on this crucial matter, and yet, for instance, the Vatican’s use of the Bible is embarrassingly simplistic and fundamentalist. We need to recover the resources of our tradition that enable an alternative view to that of Benedict XVI. We might, for instance, resurrect the care-full response of the CTSA to PERSONA HUMANA, which was published in 1979, titled HUMAN SEXUALITY. It warns against “citing verses from the Bible outside of their historical context and then blithely applying them to homosexuals today.” Such (ab)use of the Bible “does grave injustice both to Scripture and to people who have already suffered a great deal from the travesty of Biblical interpretation.” It counsels pastors to leave in peace homosexuals who are in stable, loving relationships, and it even goes on to say that “prayer, even communal prayer, for two [homosexual] people … incarnating the values of fidelity, truth, and love, is not beyond the pastoral possibilities of a Church whose ritual tradition includes a rich variety of blessings.” The study is sadly aware, however, that “social repercussions” might make such “blessings” inadvisable. The scandal of Benedict’s stance is that he speaks as though faith provided a certainty that is simply not available, and in doing so his pronouncements are cruelly misleading and unjust.'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5387858.ece

http://timesnews.typepad.com/news/2008/12/the-pope-on-hom.html

http://www.notiziegay.com/?p=22018
http://smasher-lagru.blog.com/4420221/
http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/26/pape-irresponsable.html
http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/24/monde-normatif-et-haineux.html

http://salusanimarum.blogspot.com/2008/12/vatican-homosexuality-yadda-yadda.html

http://thewildreed.blogspot.com/2008/12/and-merry-christmas-to-you-too-papa.html

http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/003567.html#comments

http://www.hypersync.net/mt/2008/12/the_vatican_speaks.html

http://arnoldcassola.wordpress.com/2008/12/24/the-lisbon-treaty-vs-the-pope/

http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2008/12/appeal-to-maltese-catholics.html

http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2008/12/ratzingers-finest-christmas-message.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/23/pope-benedict-xvi-gayrights

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2008/dec/23/religion-catholicism-gay-nature

http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/adele-horin/its-time-to-sing-out-if-youre-gay-catholic-133-and-angry/2008/12/27/1229998727650.html

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,24850261-7583,00.html

http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2009/01/dr-ing-patrick-attard-excommunicates.html

http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2009/01/times-church-and-homosexuality-2.html

http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2009/01/times-archbishop-appeals-for-more.html

http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2009/01/times-apology-due-to-church-for.html

http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2454327.htm

Gay publications carried rage to a high pitch:

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10053.html

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10056.html

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10061.html

Posted at 05:13 PM in Gay Theology | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

John McNeill's Open Letter to the American Bishops

An Open Letter to the American Bishops on the Issue of Homosexuality

In 1974, the delegates of Dignity’s first national convention requested in a letter, that a dialogue be opened between the American bishops and the members of the Catholic gay and lesbian community. With very few exceptions that letter was ignored.

Now, nearly thirty years later, once again I call upon the American bishops to open that dialogue.

For over thirty years, I have ministered as priest and psychotherapist to lesbians and gays. I helped found Dignity, New York to provide a safe and loving community within the Catholic Church for gay people. This June will mark the twenty-fifth year I have given retreats for lesbians and gays, at Kirkridge, an ecumenical retreat center.

I have written three books on gay spirituality: The Church and the Homosexual, Taking a Chance on God, and Freedom, Glorious Freedom. I also published an autobiography on my own spiritual journey as a gay priest. As a result of my experience, I have come to the conclusion that what is at stake at this point in time is not only the spiritual and psychological health of many gay and lesbian Catholics and other lesbian and gay Christians. What is at stake is your moral authority to teach on this issue.

In the past, when you undertook a listening process to hear what the Holy Spirit was saying through the People of God, you won our respect. We respected you when you made your statements on the economy, on nuclear warfare and, especially, your aborted effort to draw up a letter on the role of women in the Church. You listened carefully to what women had to say and, and drew up your statements responding to what you heard from women. These actions gave us gay and lesbians reason to hope that the Holy Spirit would lead you into a spirit of willingness to listen to us gay and lesbian Catholics.

What is at stake now is your own moral authority! Unless we gay and lesbian Catholics receive the message that you take us seriously and are willing to listen carefully to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you through our lives and our experience, your judgments on homosexuality will be, for the most part, ignored and you will lose what authority you have left to deserve to be listened to with respect on this issue.

I have never heard the same level of courage from the American Bishops in dealing with the Vatican as that shown by the Major Superiors of Religious Men in response to the egregious document issued by The Congregation for the Defense of the Faith, entitled, “Some Considerations Concerning Homosexual Persons” as follows:

“We view (this document) as a hindrance to the Church leaders of the United States in this most difficult and sensitive area of human living. ---We are shocked that the statement calls for discrimination against gay men and lesbian women. We find the reasoning for supporting such discrimination to be strained, unconvincing and counterproductive to our statements and actions to support the pastoral needs and personal dignity of such persons. Far from a help to the Bishops and other religious leaders in the United States Catholic Church, the statement complicates our already complex ministry to all people.

“Moreover we find the arguments used to justify discrimination based on stereotypes and falsehoods that are out of touch with modern psychological and sociological understandings of human sexuality. We regrets such actions by the CDF and we reaffirm our support for the human rights of all our brothers and sisters.”

As a gay Catholic theologian and psychotherapist, I am fully aware of the enormous destruction recent Vatican documents have caused in the psychic life of young Catholic gays, and of the violence they will provoke against all gay people. I find myself in a dilemma what kind of faith and trust can I place in a teaching authority that I see clearly acts in an unloving, hateful and destructive way toward my gay family and is more interested in defending its institutional interest than it is in truth and justice?

In the name of the thousands of gay and lesbian Catholics and other Christians to whom it has been my God-given privilege to minister, I make this statement:

At this point, the ignorance and distortion of homosexuality, the use of stereotypes and falsehoods in official Church documents, forces us who are gay Catholics to issue the institutional Church a serious warning. Your ignorance of homosexuality can no longer be excused as inculpable; it has become of necessity a deliberate and malicious ignorance. In the name of Catholic gays and lesbians everywhere, we cry out “Enough!”

Enough! Enough of your distortions of Scripture. You continue to claim that a loving homosexual act in a committed relationship is condemned in Scripture, when competent scholars are nearly unanimous in acknowledging that nowhere in Scripture is the problem of sexual acts between two gay men or lesbian women who love each other, ever dealt with, never mind condemned. You must listen to biblical scholars to find out what Scripture truly has to say about homosexual relationships.

Enough! Enough of your efforts to reduce all homosexual acts to expressions of lust, and your refusal to see them as possible expressions of a deep and genuine human love. The second group you must listen to are competent professional psychiatrists and psychotherapists from whom you can learn about the healthy and positive nature of mature gay and lesbian relationships. They will assure you that homosexual orientation is both unchosen and unchangeable and that any ministry promising to change that orientation is a fraud.

Enough! Enough of your efforts through groups like Courage and other exgay ministries to lead young gays to internalize self-hatred with the result that they are able to relate to God only as a God of fear, shame and guilt and lose all hope in a God of mercy and love. What is bad psychology has to be bad theology!

Enough! Enough again, of your efforts to foster hatred, violence, discrimination and rejection of us in the human community. We gay and lesbian Catholics pray daily that the Holy Spirit will lead you into a spirit of repentance. You must publicly accept your share of the blame for gay murders and bashing and so many suicides of young gays and ask forgiveness from God and from the gay community.

Enough, also, of driving us from the home of our mother, the Church, and attempting to deny us the fullness of human intimacy and sexual love. You frequently base that denial by an appeal to the dead letter of the “natural law.” Another group to whom you must listen are the moral theologians who, as a majority, argue that natural law is no longer an adequate basis for dealing with sexual questions. They must be dealt with within the context of interpersonal human relationships.

Above all else, you must enter into dialogue with the gay and lesbian members of the Catholic community. We are the ones living out the human experience of a gay orientation, so we alone can discern directly in our experience what God’s spirit is saying to us.

And for the first time in history you have gay and lesbian Catholic communities of worship and prayer who are seeking individually and collectively to hear what the Spirit is saying to them in their gay experience --- what experiences lead to the peace and joy of oneness with the Spirit of God and what experiences lead away from that peace and joy!

God gave you the commission of discerning the truth. But there is no mandate from Jesus Christ to “create” the truth. We pray daily that the Holy Spirit will lead you to search humbly for the truth concerning homosexuality through dialogue with your lesbian sisters and gay brothers.

The only consolation I can offer gay and lesbian Catholics in the meantime is the profound hope that the very absurdity and hateful spirit of recent Vatican documents will lead gay Catholics to refuse them and recognize the contradiction of their message and that of Jesus who never once spoke a negative word concerning homosexuals.

I work, hope and pray that lesbian and gay Catholics and other gay Christians will exercise their legitimate freedom of conscience, discerning what God is saying to them directly through their gay experience. I hope, too, that they will be able to de-fang the poisons of pathologically homophobic religion, accepting the good news that God loves them and accepts them as gays and lesbians and refusing to be caught in the vortex of self-hatred vis-à-vis a God of fear.

I believe that we are at the moment of a special “kairos” in this matter. The Holy Spirit is “doing something new.” I was recently the guest at a gay ecumenical community that established homes for adult retarded people in the city of Basel in Switzerland. The extraordinary spirit of love and compassion that permeated that community was a foretaste of what lies in the future. I believe there is a vast reservoir of human and divine love that has remained until now untapped because of prejudice and homophobia. The Spirit is calling on you to help release that vast potential of human and divine love through your action sat this national conference.

Please be assured that the actions of Soulforce and Dignity at your national conference are based in profound respect and love. We pray and hope that the same Holy Spirit who has graciously liberated us who are gay to self-respect and self-love will liberate in you, our Catholic leaders, a profound love for your gay brothers and lesbian sisters and melt away all prejudice and judgmentalism in your hearts. May you make us welcome as full members in your family in Christ.

May God bless your efforts!

Sincerely in Christ
John J. McNeill

Posted at 02:07 PM in Gay Theology | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Vatican and UN on Decriminalization of Gays

For the main article please scroll down. First I give an update:

The big surprise was the warm tone in which Msgr Migliore praised the Declaration of 66 acountries against the criminalization of gays in his speech of December 18. "The Holy See appreciates the attempts made in the Declaration of Human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity --presented at the UN General Assembly on 18 December 2008 -- to condemn all forms of violence against homosexual persons as well as urge States to take necessary measures to put an end to all criminal penalties against them."
http://www.zenit.org/article-24606?l=english http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=14672.

This has been seen as "a significant reversal" and encourages one to think that the Vatican is not as immune to complaints and appeals as is often thought. The massive silence of bishops and priests, not one of whom took up the defence of the Vatican’s stand, may have given food for thought. See http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2008/12/un-general-assembly-statement-affirms.html

Fr Lombardi, Vatican press spokesman, also clarified that the Vatican does not support the statement propounded by Syria, backed by nearly sixty nations, which warned against the attempt to create "new rights" and defended the right of States to enact laws that meet the "just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare."

Will this diplomatic retreat be sufficient to dislodge the perception that has taken root in the collective imagination, to the effect that the Vatican is happy to gang up with countries like Iran against gays? I fear not, first because the Vatican in practice has given strategic support to those countries; http://www.notiziegay.com/?p=22815. Second, because the Vatican’s embarrassing confusion about the Declaration is only the tip of an iceberg. For decades the Vatican has parrotted a few phrases, from Homosexualitatis Problema, 1986, and from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, whenever gay issues have arisen. It has come across as unwilling and unable to dialogue with gay Catholics as human beings. Bishops in the US have sponsored flaky groups like Courage, whose adherence to "orthodoxy" comes at the cost of damaging the young people that trust them. The official Church has done nothing to present itself as caring a whit for gays and lesbians.

Any hope that Msgr Migliore’s diplomacy will alter perceptions is being dashed by the negativity streaming from L’Osservatore Romano, which has published ill-thought-out articles urging that acceptance of gay unions would undermine the stability of sexual identity. According to an unsigned note, the Declaration introduces ‘the idea that sexual identity is to be defined solely by culture and is thus susceptible of being transformed at one’s pleasure, according to individual desire and historical and social influences.’ Surely the author must know that the staple of homophobic discourse is that gay orientation is chosen, as a result of evil cultural influences? The Declaration presented to the UN does not entail any such false concept of sexual orientation.

‘In this manner, introducing such categories, one advances the false conviction that sexual identity is the product of individual choices which are unquestionable and, above all, deserving in all circumstances of public recognition’. The demand for gay marriage ‘is based on the idea that the heterosexual polarity is not a fundamental element of society but a choice to be cancelled’. Now we see what the above comments were meant to suggest: that modern society is treating heterosexuality as a cultural choice. In short, gays threaten to turn everyone into gays, to make men into women and women into men. This reminds me of an editorial in L’Osservatore Romano on November 27, 1929: The Jewish Peril Threatens the World.
http://www.ansa.it/opencms/export/site/visualizza_fdg.html_846320179.html; http://www.repubblica.it/2008/12/sezioni/esteri/benedetto-xvi-28/onu-francia/onu-francia.html

French television is not transmitting the Pope’s Christmas Mass, and this is taken by some as France’s petty revenge on the Vatican for not supporting the Declaration!

http://www.libero-news.it/articles/view/437418

Such issues are probably not taken lightly by the Vatican, which worries about its popularity, especially at a time when there has been a substantial falling-off in attendance at papal events. It must have noticed, too, the silence of bishops and priests worldwide about the recent string of Vatican gaffes, which arouse animosity against Catholics everywhere; the silence was no doubt tinged with Schadenfreude.

See also: http://caphi.over-blog.fr/article-25917657.htmlTeh.

http://www.gionata.org/credenti-omosessuali/i-gruppi/i-gay-cristiani-di-padova-scrivono-al-giornale-diocesano.html
http://www.gionata.org/credenti-omosessuali/testimonianze/nella-frenetica-milano-pre-natalizia-noi-cristiani-omosessuali-e-non-alla-veglia-contro-lomofobia.html
http://www.gionata.org/notizie/dal-mondo/caro-benedetto-xvi-auguri-per-un-natale-diverso.html
http://www.gionata.org/notizie/dal-mondo/preti-anticlericali-e-prostitute-uniti-in-piazza-per-adeschiamo-i-diritti.html
http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2008/12/maltatoday-maltas-gay-catholics-rally.html
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081223/opinion/love-is-a-such-many-splendoured-thingHYPERLINK http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10046.html
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-10046.html

http://donfrancobarbero.blogspot.com/2008/12/un-passo-in-avanti.html

http://donfrancobarbero.blogspot.com/2008/12/fatevi-due-risate-natalizie.html

http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/dutch-foreign-minister/

http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/the-foundation-of-friends-of-the-gay-krant-svgk-starts-a-global-action-against-the-gay-discriminatory-statements-of-pope-benedict-xvi/

http://gayswithoutborders.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/russian-delegation/

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/27/reactions-a-la-stigmatisation-papale.html

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2009/01/06/presidence-homophobe.html

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2009/01/10/fascisme-rampant.html

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/29/majorite-pour-la-persecution.html

Here is Spanish PM Zapatero announcing legalization of gay marriage in 2005. I think it is quite possible that some pope will make a similar speech to similar applause before very long, aand I pray it may be so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi7DbJqkU2s

Meanwhile the bitter fruit of church hypocrisy is being eaten by the most vulnerable in Irish society;

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2009/0210/1233867929596.html

*****

MAIN ARTICLE:

I. VATICAN OBJECTIONS TO A HUMAN RIGHTS PROPOSAL

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Are we the new Taliban? Such is at least the image the Vatican has managed to project of Catholicism due to its rejection of the Declaration on decriminalizing homosexuality presented to the UN on December 18, 2008. This bad impression was allayed by some belated diplomacy, in which the Vatican clearly distanced itself from States that criminalize homosexuality and especially from a counter-declaration of Syria and 60 other countries (mostly Islamic or African).

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The Declaration calling for a universal decriminalization of homosexuality was presented to the UN on behalf of France by Rama Yade (born in Senegal, 1976), state secretary for human rights under the Minister for Foreign and European Affairs, Bernard Kouchner.

http://www.france24.com/en/20081219-UN-homosexuality-gay-rights-decriminalisation-human-rights

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/19/un-pas-contre-la-haine.html

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0812/S00456.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/19/news/19nations.php

http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/12/19/Nations_push_UN_to_decriminalise_homosexuality

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/3836264/UN-states-urged-to-decriminalise-homosexuality.html

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The Declaration reads as follows:

We have the honor to make this statement on human rights, sexual orientation, and gender identity on behalf of [...]

1 - We reaffirm the principle of universality of human rights, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights whose 60th anniversary is celebrated this year, Article 1 of which proclaims that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights";

2 - We reaffirm that everyone is entitled to the enjoyment of human rights without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, as set out in Article 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 2 of the International Covenants on Civil and Political, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, as well as in Article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights;

3 - We reaffirm the principle of non-discrimination which requires that human rights apply equally to every human being regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity;

4 - We are deeply concerned by violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms based on sexual orientation or gender identity;

5 - We are also disturbed that violence, harassment, discrimination, exclusion, stigmatization and prejudice are directed against persons in all countries in the world because of sexual orientation or gender identity, and that these practices undermine the integrity and dignity of those subjected to these abuses;

6 - We condemn the human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity wherever they occur, in particular the use of the death penalty on this ground, extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, the practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, arbitrary arrest or detention, and deprivation of economic, social, and cultural rights, including the right to health;

7 - We recall the statement in 2006 before the Human Rights Council by fifty four countries requesting the President of the Council to provide an opportunity, at an appropriate future session of the Council, for discussing these violations;

8 - We commend the attention paid to these issues by special procedures of the Human Rights Council and treaty bodies and encourage them to continue to integrate consideration of human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity within their relevant mandates;

9 - We welcome the adoption of Resolution AG/RES. 2435 (XXXVIII-O/08) on "Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity" by the General Assembly of the Organization of American States during its 38th session in 3 June 2008;

10 - We call upon all States and relevant international human rights mechanisms to commit to promote and protect human rights of all persons, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity;

11- We urge States to take all the necessary measures, in particular legislative or administrative, to ensure that sexual orientation or gender identity may under no circumstances be the basis for criminal penalties, in particular executions, arrests; or detention;

12 - We urge States to ensure that human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity are investigated and perpetrators held accountable and brought to justice;

13 - We urge States to ensure adequate protection of human rights defenders, and remove obstacles which prevent them from carrying out their work on issues of human rights and sexual orientation and gender identity.

http://gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20219233&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=585504&rfi=6

http://www.certidiritti.it/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=232:in-esclusiva-il-testo-della-proposta-francese-allonu-su-depenalizzazione-omosessualita&catid=1:ultime&Itemid=55

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The most informative piece I have found on the background to the proposal is by the irrepressible Peter Tatchell:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/08/gayrights-unitednations

http://thewildreed.blogspot.com/2008/12/vaticans-actions-at-un-sickening.html

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The proposal was backed by all 27 of the EU countries along with Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, the Central African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Gabon, Georgia, Guinea Bissau, Iceland, Israel, Japan, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Mexico, Montenegro, Nepal, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Paraguay, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Switzerland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The final tally of supporters was thus 66 nations. The USA did not support the declaration, nor did China. Asian support was represented by Japan and Nepal.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/nepal-maoists-to-stand-up-for-gay-rights-in-un_100129594.html

http://gayarmenia.blogspot.com/2008/12/armenia-endorses-historic-un-statement.html

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Russian gays have called on their nation to sign the Declaration:

http://gayrussia.ru/en/news/detail.php?ID=12604

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The rival declaration presented by Syria reveals a deep split within the UN on the topic of human rights.

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE4BH7EW20081218

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE4BH7EW20081218?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

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The Declaration is grounded in the most basic aspects of the UN Charter on Human Rights. But the Vatican claims that the the decriminalization urged in the proposal could lead to new discriminations against States that do not recognize gay unions. So the torture, jailing and execution and the general regime of intimidation and terror to which gays are subjected in so many countries, is something the Vatican can oppose only in its own words, and not in cooperation with the world's leading democracies.

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Nonetheless, says Monsignor Celestino Migliore, we are all in favour of wh\at respects and protects persons; it is part of our human and spiritual patrimony; our Catechism forbids unjust discrimination.

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‘Migliore told French news agency I.Media on Dec. 1 that such a proposal was “sad and outrageous” and represented the kind of “modern savagery that will dismantle our society from the inside out.” The initiative would promote the dismantling of the human-rights system by allowing declarations that are no longer about promoting and protecting fundamental rights but about “personal choices,” he said.’ http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/2822 His tone at the UN assembly was startlingly different.

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In a speech on Dec 17 Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, another Vatican permanent observer at the UN, warned against creating new rights:

http://www.indcatholicnews.com/newhun324.html

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Arcigay claimed that the Vatican’s posture is of an unheard of gravity, constituting a sentence of death for millions of gays and lesbians in 91 sanguinary countries, including 10 Islamic ones, that prescribe criminal sanctions, torture, or executions for homosexual persons. The Vatican’s objection makes no sense, says Arcigay, but is a calculated and cynical lie to conceal what the Vatican really wants: to maintain the death sentence and imprisonment for homosexual persons.

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In fairness, the Vatican does not support the death sentence. Moreover, in response to the outcry against the Vatican stance, Vatican Radio assures its audience that the Vatican supports decriminalization of homosexuality, but is opposed to putting all sorts of sexual orientation on the same level. Commenting on this, papal biographer Marco Politi remarks (La Repubblica, Dec. 14): “L’affanno nell’aggiustare il tiro tradisce la falza partenza” (“This laborious readjustment of their focus betrays that they jumped the gun”). At the very least they have shown a carelessness about real people in their haste to make an ideological point.

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The readjustments and damage control by the Vatican, and the exercises in spin from its defenders (see below), should not be allowed to obscure the offensiveness of the Vatican’s behaviour in rejecting a human rights proposal sponsored by the most democratic nations on the basis of a flimsy. poorly thought out set of objections, or rather on the basis of an instinctive gut reaction., compounded of authoritarianism (what Andrew Sullivan calls a “defensive crunch”) and anti-gay prejudice. Lurking in the background is the following passage from the CDF’s document Homosexualitatis Problema of 1986 (known as “the Halloween letter”):
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10. It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from the Church’s pastors wherever it occurs. It reveals a kind of disregard for others which endangers the most fundamental principles of a healthy society. The intrinsic dignity of each person must always be respected in word, in action and in law. But the proper reaction to crimes committed against homosexual persons should not be to claim that the homosexual condition is not disordered. When such a claim is made and when homosexual activity is consequently condoned, or when civil legislation is introduced to protect behavior to which no one has any conceivable right, neither the Church nor society at large should be surprised when other distorted notions and practices gain ground, and irrational and violent reactions increase.

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19861001_homosexual-persons_en.html

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The incipit of this document, “the problem of homosexuality” (softened in the English translation to “the issue of homosexuality”) is itself problematic. As with “the problem of Judaism” or “the problem of racial diversity” or “the problem of religious pluralism” the problem is in the dogmatic mind that would impose single vision at the expense of the diversity of phenomena. Homosexuality is not a problem, but a vocation - the vocation of a substantial proportion of the human race to love people of their own sex (as Episcopalian Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts-Schori states). This provides the positive premise for a complete rethink of the Church’s teaching on the subject, that would bring that teaching into better accord not only with human rights but with the authentic meaning of Scripture and a more authentic understanding of natural law. The Church should be delighted to dialogue with advocates of faithful gay unions, who represent a breakthrough of moral wisdom in the gay world. Instead, there has been no dialogue between the Church and her gay/lesbian members – between the Church and itself, as it were. The erratic character of the Vatican’s reaction to the French UN proposal is just one more symptom of this dysfunctional situation.

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Instead of denouncing the proposal of decriminalization as sad and outrageous, the Vatican should back it warmly. It should also think about opening up a dialogue with gays, which might lead to an apology for two millennia of false teaching that has caused untold misery. Such a Vatican conversion is not unthinkable; it is already underfoot in the case of the Vatican's relationship with Judaism.

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For what Jesus would say, read Matthew 23.

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II. THE CRITICISMS AND THE VATICAN RESPONSE

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Gian Enrico Rusconi in La Stampa, Dec, 2, calls the Vatican’s reason for objecting to the UN proposal a grotesque pretext. He points out that years of discussion on morality, conscience, law and responsibility in Europe has met with a deaf ear from the Vatican, who seem to have written off Europe as a hotbed of relativism. “They do not dialogue any more.” The Vatican are more worried about the alleged embarrassment that the UN resolution might bring to countries that do not legalize gay marriage than about the real sufferings of gays who are jailed and executed. Rusconi points out that the Vatican has become a dependable ally of Islamic regimes on sexual issues, and he expressed fear as to what the Vatican’s increasingly rigid and irrational attitude may lead to. http://www.lastampa.it/_web/cmstp/tmplRubriche/editoriali/gEditoriali.asp?ID_blog=25&ID_articolo=5309&ID_sezione=&sezione=

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Corriere della Sera, Dec 2, has a very strong condemnation of the Vatican’s attitudes, recalling the incident of the teenagers hanged in Iran, and also carries an interview with the theologian Vito Mancuso, who accuses Msgr Migliore of presenting illogical and contorted reasonings that contradict the Church’s profession of concern for the sacredness of human life. The illogical leap from protecting gays from imprisonment and execution to supporting gay marriage betokens fear, even panic. In failing to recognize gays the Church projects an unwelcoming face, not very Catholic and not very Christian. See http://www.informazionecorretta.it/main.php?mediaId=2&sez=120&id=26808

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In response to the barrage of criticism, the head of the Vatican press office, Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said: “No one wishes to defend the death penalty for homosexuals, as some would wish us to believe.” But this defensive response to Arcigay could confirm that the Vatican supports other criminal sanctions for homosexuals. In any case Fr Lombardi contradicted himself in the next breath when he added, “Not for nothing have less than 50 of the member states of the United Nations adhered to the proposal in question, while more than 150 have not adhered to it. The Holy See is not alone.” As noted above, the final tally of supporters was 66 countries, and it was Islamic nations who took the lead, along with the Vatican, separately, from its observer sidelines, in opposing the declaration. The more enlightened nations are likely to give their support to the Declaration in the coming years. The 'we are not alone' line of argument gives the impression that the Vatican is happy to be allied with nations that execute their homosexual sons and daughters, and that they have thrown in their lot with many other nations that imprison gays. But happily the Vatican is now distancing itself from this implication.

http://www.uaar.it/news/2008/12/02/vaticano-nostra-posizione-sui-gay-allonu-non-isolata/

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Homosexual acts are punishable by imprisonment in the following countries (an approximate list):

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Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda (life imprisonment).

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Bangladesh (life imprisonment), Bhutan, Brunei, India, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar (life imprisonment), Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

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Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados (life imprisonment), Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana (life imprisonment), Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.

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Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu.
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Homosexual acts are punishable by death in the following countries:
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Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Mauritania, Yemen.

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In 2002, three men were decapitated in Saudi Arabia for homosexual acts and in Nigeria two men were stoned recently for sodomy. ‘Homosexuals are worse than pigs and dogs’ says Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, and similar sentiments are expressed by the Anglican Primate of Nigeria and the Catholic Cardinal of Lagos. See:

http://patrickattard.blogspot.com/2008/12/vaticans-black-day-of-shame.html

http://lavissauveaconditiondeclairer.blogs.nouvelobs.com/archive/2008/12/02/le-vatican-s-oppose-t-il-a-la-depenalisation-universelle-de.html

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I note in a Zenit report that Fr Lombardi also said: “The well-known principles of respect for the fundamental rights of the person and the rejection of all unjust discrimination – recognized clearly by the Catechism of the Catholic Church itself – evidently exclude not only the death penalty, but all violent or discriminatory penal legislations in relation to homosexuals.” This could be taken to imply that the Church is not against penal legislation in relation to homosexuals as long as they are not violent or discriminatory; or that homosexual acts are considered as vice, to be curbed by the State when necessary. Again, the Vatican has now distanced itself from this implication.

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In a change of tack, Fr Lombardi said on Dec. 11: “France’s document has not yet been presented and so it is needful to clarify what it is about, because no one has officially published as text. Thus is it not the occasion to construct polemics on an object that is not yet clear.” See also

http://paparatzinger2-blograffaella.blogspot.com/2008/12/padre-lombardi-la-chiesa-per-la.html

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The president of the Pontifical Council on Justice and Peace, Cardinale Renato Martino, himself constructing a polemic on a hypothetical basis, added: “If people wants the Holy See to put on the same level gay couples and heterosexual ones, I can assure you that this will not happen.” http://www.repubblica.it/2008/11/sezioni/esteri/benedetto-xvi-27/martino-coppie-gay/martino-coppie-gay.html

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Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State, urged that “human rights always need to be defended but should not be confused with mere contingent needs that are often limited.” Their “exact nature” must be defined, and we must not “let the demand for rights run off in every direction.” “To respect and reinvigorate the fundamental rights would be a concrete way to resist the different forms of abandon of moral coordinates social relationships.” All of this can be read as a fin de non recevoir toward the claim that gay rights are human rights, as can his reference to “an individualistic vision on which are arbitrarily constructed new rights ill-defined in their content and in juridical logic.” Cardinal Martino adds that “a correct interpretation and an efficacious protection of rights depends on an anthropology that embraces the totality of the constitutive dimensions of the human person” (and the ‘disorder’ of homosexual orientation is clearly not one of those dimensions in the Vatican’s eyes). http://www.corriere.it/cronache/08_dicembre_10/diritti_umani_vaticano_bertone_martino_318edde6-c6da-11dd-a4cf-00144f02aabc.shtml

http://www.repubblica.it/2008/11/sezioni/esteri/benedetto-xvi-27/bertone-onu/bertone-onu.html

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Thanks to the Internet the potential Talibanesque implications of this were immediately unmasked:

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/12/distinctions-discriminatoires.html

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France defended its proposal, claiming that the Vatican had mischaracterized it:

http://www.la-croix.com/afp.static/pages/081202150225.mtiujlpr.htm

http://tetu.com/rubrique/infos/infos_detail.php?id_news=13814

http://www.lejdd.fr/cmc/societe/200849/homosexualite-paris-fait-debat_169810.html

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But there was some tension in the French camp:

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/11/droits-de-l-homme-secondaires.html

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Some Italian parliamentarians, prompted by a gay organization, were to take up a bipartisan appeal to President Napolitano to distance himself from the Vatican.

http://www.notiziegay.com/?p=21095

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Italian gays, learning that attack is the best method of defence, and mobilized in an unprecedented manner, albeit in small numbers, thanks to the Internet, took their protests to episcopal palaces, and on Dec. 6 to St Peter’s Square (almost):

http://vodpod.com/watch/1214172-gay-activists-protest-vatican-over-un-anti-discrimination-declaration

http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/dec/08120805.html

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/167395?m=454a9415

http://www.arcigay.it/no-alla-nuova-inquisizione-milano

http://www.arcigay.it/vaticano-arma-mano-del-boia

http://www.arcigay.it/viva-diritti-no-oscurita-firenze

http://www.corriere.it/politica/08_dicembre_06/protesta_gay_vaticano_cappio_f041da32-c3b9-11dd-b8a5-00144f02aabc.shtml

http://www.repubblica.it/2008/11/sezioni/esteri/benedetto-xvi-27/protesta-gay/protesta-gay.html

http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2008/12/08/les-gays-protestent-contre-le-refus-du-vatican-de-depenaliser-l-homosexualite_1128256_3214.html

http://dieunousaimechretiensetgay.blogspirit.com/archive/2008/12/08/contre-la-haine.html

http://donfrancobarbero.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-gay-unica-luce-per-il-vaticano.html

http://www.gionata.org/eventi/segnalazioni/dicembre-2008.-per-loro-non-c-era-posto-.-e-noi-preghiamo.html

http://diestandard.at/?url=/?id=1227287773869%26sap=2%26_pid=11428107

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There were some protests in the US:

http://www.dignityusa.org/node/1248

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=news&sc3=&id=84427

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Here is a voice from Malta: “The position expressed by Lombardi reminds me very much of the positions taken by the Pharisees when they used to quote the scriptures each time Jesus showed empathy to others in need but was clearly at odds with the Old Testament. The Vatican prefers to abide to the letter in case there is any remote chance that any recognition be given to same sex unions, instead of strongly supporting a declaration that has at its heart the depenalisation of homosexuality and the protection of human dignity and life, including that of homosexuals who, in the eyes of the Vatican are still clearly seen as children of a lesser god, in that the love they express to each other is of clearly lower quality than that shown between heterosexuals.” http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081212/opinion/never-mind-the-persecution

Failure to strongly support human rights for gays could be a derogation from the universality of human rights, with a view to respecting local cultures that are not yet ready to recognize the rights of gays and lesbians; this would be the a form of that cultural relativism that the Vatican often criticizes.

In the same Maltese combox I read:

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“Listen, .... just listen!

“Silence!

“That silence speaks volumes!”

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And indeed it is a shameful thing that the protests against the Vatican’s stance have come primarily, almost exclusively, from gays, especially from Italian gays who have courageously borne the brunt of the homophobia, including many murders, incited by church attitudes in this most Catholic of lands. See:

http://donfrancobarbero.blogspot.com/2008/12/indignazione-di-agedo.html.

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Where have the critical voices of the clergy or even of lay organizations made themselves heard? One recalls Pastor Niemöller: “They came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. And then... they came for me. And by that time there was no one left to speak up.” Catholics still treat gay rights as a joke, forgetting that gay rights are human rights. Indeed, the nulling of concern for human rights, despite smug bureaucratic declarations and rants against abortion, is now regarded as a virture among many Catholics. They think that it is what the Pope wants.

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Famiglia Cristiana published a letter, Dec 4, from a gay Catholic, who says that he and the members of his group, Il Ponte, can distinguish between Vatican officials and the Church, and continue to love the Church despite the stupid politicking of the officials. And indeed where there is a vibrant experience of Christian community, what goes on in the higher regions can be bracketed out; only its effect on defenceless human beings throughout the world should not be underestimated. Generally speaking, Catholics have been too soft on their leaders, too willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. http://www.gionata.org/credenti-omosessuali/testimonianze/cara-famiglia-cristiana.-lettera-di-un-gay-cattolico-deluso-dalla-gerarchia-della-sua-chiesa.html. See also:

http://www.gionata.org/credenti-omosessuali/testimonianze/di-fronte-allomofobia-della-gerarchia-cattolica-questa-la-mia-idea.html

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III. DEFENDERS OF THE VATICAN

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Be it noted that the Catholic News Service of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops reports the news of the Vatican’s action blandly, approvingly: http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0806042.htm

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Lucetta Scaraffia claims in no less an organ than L’Osservatore Romano that the Vatican is on the side of the real victims – she refers not to gays who are jailed or executed but to the children that gay couples threaten to adopt! She quotes the trendy, but rather cynical and sceptical French sociologist Marcel Gauchet on the “impotent tyranny of good sentiments”, for which, she glosses, “what matters is not so much the quest for justice and truth, but rather the capacity to succeed in representing ourselves as victims.” To my ears, this sounds like the effete gibe of some out-of-touch aristocrat dismissing the revolutionary mob at the door. http://www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_quo/text.html

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Catholic League shows terrific contempt for human rights by pooh-poohing the criticisms of the Vatican as “Gay Hysteria”. Bill Donohue accuses Dignity, New Ways Ministry, Call to Action, Catholics for Choice of maliciously distorting the Vatican’s position, but he is too cunning to tell his readers what he thinks the Vatican position on the criminalization of homosexuality actually is.

http://www.catholic.org/politics/story.php?id=30963

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Commenting on the Catholic News Service report in the NCR an anonymous poster writes:

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‘On most other issues, I fall into the liberal column, but my position is that the Vatican’s position is reasonable and fair and a truthful voice in the Tower of Babel that the subject has become. To the extent that it is practiced today, it is clear homosexuality is not an inborn trait, but a cultural phenomenon. There are a small number of children with physical conditions that preclude them being either male or female at birth; in such cases medical intervention becomes necessary. In the present age the tidal wave of those who call themselves homosexuals likely includes a large percentage of individuals with emotional/psychological disorders and/or those who choose the popular homosexual lifestyle. These have become fodder for the media industry. Thank God for the Vatican, thank God for Pope Benedict. If not for both, we Catholics would find ourselves in the awful predicament of the Anglican Church.’

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Such views are of course Neanderthal; but this seems to be the kind of thinking with which the Vatican is happy. Pope Benedict should be very worried about the quality of his fans and the sectarian and fundamentalist outlook they propagate.

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Not much better is a contribution by Francesco d’Agostino in the Catholic journal Avvenire, which argues from the completely opposite premise, namely, that the UN proposal wants to make homosexuality a cultural choice rather than a biological datum: http://paparatzinger2-blograffaella.blogspot.com/2008/12/gli-equivoci-sulla-depenalizzazione.html. Yes, any old dogma will do to beat a stigma.

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Michele Brambilla indulges in some glorious “whataboutery: a modicum of historical knowledge reveals, he claims, that “those who wanted to transform certain ‘sins’ into crimes have always run afoul of the Church, to the point of leaving her and going to swell the ranks of the heretics.” Examples: Savonarola and Calvin. No mention of the fact that the Church, through the Inquisition, punished sodomy as a capital crime; the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215, calls on rulers to pursue sodomites under pain of excommunication. Brambilla points out homosexual acts were decriminalized at an early date in countries with a Catholic tradition such as France (1810), Italy (1886) and Poland (1932), failing to note that the decriminalization in France and Italy happened precisely at a time when the power of the Church had been broken. In contrast, he points out, Anglican Great Britain decriminalized homosexual acts only in 1967, communist Germany only in 1968, socialist Yugoslavia only in 1977 and Lutheran Norway only in 1972, Israel only in 1988. He fails to mention Catholic Ireland, which took the bold step, with no church encouragement, only in 1993, nor does he make any mention of the Hispanic world..

http://paparatzinger2-blograffaella.blogspot.com/2008/12/vaticano-onu-e-gay-storia-di-una-bufala.html

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The Vatican also finds a defender in Andrea Tornielli of Il Giornale, Dec. 2, who claims it is being misrepresented. “This project – to which 150 countries have not adhered, and thus the Holy See is certainly not alone – tends indeed to carry us, without passing through general discussion and voting, toward a revision of all human rights on the basis of sexual orientation and could thus be used some tomorrow to put pressure for example on those States that do not accept marriage between gays or the adoption of babies by homosexual couples... The Catechism speaks clearly and it suffices to have read it to understand that the Church does not wish to discriminate unjustly against homosexual persons nor all the less does it desire that they be incarcerated and least of all condemned to death.”

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This journalist is unaware of the spiral to which such slippery slope thinking invariably leads churchmen. I recall that the Roman Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland (God help us) came out against the decriminalization of homosexuality in the 1980s – not exactly the Middle Ages. Even the entire Irish Episcopal Conference found nothing more gracious to say about the eventual decriminalization of homosexuality in Ireland in 1993 than that it posed a threat to marriage.

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Another defender of the Vatican is Stefano Fontana in L’Occidentale, Dec. 3, 2008, as translated at http://freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354494&p=23.

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His title is wonderfully paradoxical:

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ANYONE WHO SAYS THE CHURCH IS INTOLERANT CAN ONLY DO SO IN BAD FAITH

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Young Communist fanatics used to talk like that once...

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Fontana argues that

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the proposal not only means ‘decriminalization’ but the inclusion of homosexuals among the categories to be protected against hate crimes on the same level as racism and religious intolerance. The Sarkozy proposal, in other words, identifies homosexuality with homosexuals - the act with the person - indicating that one cannot be against homosexuality without being against homosexuals, i.e., whoever is against homosexuality is also against homosexuals. But the Church position is also that of anyone who simply uses reason. One can maintain that homosexuality is a disorder, as Benedict XVI and the Church have called it, but affirm at the same time that homosexuals have the same dignity as every other person and deserve the same respect.
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Fontana claims that the Church practices “respect for homosexuals” “as Christ loved prostitutes and other sinners.” Their sin, it appears, is not to have welcomed the transmission of life from the very beginning. Note the emphasis on the wrongness of the orientation, which repeats the very same amalgamation of person and act that he is supposed to be criticizing. Of course he probably thinks the orientation is a choice; to such primitive conceptions does Vatican-speak induce its muddled readers. If such a choice were approved, Fontana concludes, in a rather hysterical sweep:
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Society would be a heap of individuals thrown together but not a community. When it is said, sometimes as rhetoric, that the family is the basic cell of society, it means exactly that. A homosexual couple which cannot generate life cannot be this cell, because life would not continue.
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Unless gays are put in jail, the human race will die out?

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For more bizarre Fontaniana see http://musicasacra.forumfree.net/?t=14169226

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Various Italian clerics play the usual game of blaming the media for the outcry, yet without pausing for breath they immediately go on to say that gay unions must be banned because unethical. They make no serious effort to dispel the impression that in addition to spurning such unions they would also not object if gay sex outside such unions were subject to criminal sanctions. The flawed point of departure leads them again and again to find themselves unwittingly in the same bed as their inquisitorial predecessors. Meanwhile other Italian priests have accused the Vatican of forgetting the Gospel. See:

http://www.gionata.org/chiese-e-omosessualit/approfondimenti/noi-gay-cattolici-quante-ferite-dal-vaticano.html.

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It is a feeble enough line of defence is to claim that the Vatican was objecting only to some lexical ambiguities in the proposal and was not at all supporting the imprisonment of gays; see http://paparatzinger2-blograffaella.blogspot.com/2008/12/omosessualit-e-disabili-aleggia-leco.html.

http://www.michnews.com/artman/publish/article_21925.shtm

http://giovannipaolo.wordpress.com/2008/12/06/il-vaticano-e-la-dichiarazione-onu-sullomosessualita-tra-ragioni-della-scelta-e-dubbi-cristiani

http://www.zenit.org/article-16570?l=german

The Vatican could have stressed that itself, instead of boasting that a majority of countries (most of which threaten gays with imprisonment or execution) are on its side. When Fr Lombardi says that the Vatican opposes violent and discriminatory penalization, he fails to reassure anyone that the Vatican opposes penalization in principle.

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José Luis Restan sees the Vatican as ambushed by people viciously distorting its position; he faults the Vatican only for not being “subtle as serpents” as Jesus counselled. But the Vatican’s failure to deliver any positive, persuasive and encouraging message to gays leaves Restan and the other defenders in a tricky position. Repeating ad nauseam the phrase “unjust discrimination” merely reminds one of what a weasel-word that “unjust” is, especially given that, as far as I am aware, the Vatican has never in practice intervened on behalf of gays in any circumstances.

http://paparatzinger2-blograffaella.blogspot.com/2008/12/diritti-umani-ecco-svelati-gli-inganni.html

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One Vatican defender expresses dismay at the Vatican's inability to explain itself clearly:

http://paparatzinger2-blograffaella.blogspot.com/2008/12/i-meschini-attacchi-mediatici-benedetto.html

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Vatican defenders accuse gays of amalgamating legitimate demands for civil liberties with pressure for a change in moral teaching. Generally gay advocates argue both for civil rights and a change in moral teaching, and it is easy to slip into a rhetoric that piggy-backs the latter, more controverted, case on the former.

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But it seems to me the Declaration does not commit this kind of amalgam. Its concern is with law rather than morality. It refers to "human rights violations based on sexual orientation or gender identity" and these categories are supposed to be a Trojan Horse. But how else refer to the victims? A vague appeal to respect freedom of conscience, privacy, equality before the law, would not work without concrete designation of the concrete modes of persecution and their actual targets. (Remember how much trouble Pius XII had in identifying the actual targets of Nazi extermination...) Indeed, it is the Vatican itself which is guilty of a law-morality amalgam when it refuses to protect the civil rights of gays on the pretext that this would undermine its moral teaching.

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Tatchell wrote: ‘Many of the countries that continue to criminalise same-sex relationships are in Africa and Asia. Their anti-gay laws were, in fact, imposed by the European powers during the period of colonialism. With the backing of Christian churches and missionaries, the imperial states exported their homophobia to the rest of the world. In many of the conquered lands, little such prejudice had previously existed and, in some cases, same-sex relations were variously tolerated, accepted and even venerated. This importation of western homophobia happened in countries like Ghana, Jamaica, Nigeria and Uganda, which now absurdly decry homosexuality as a “white man’s disease” and “unAfrican”, while vehemently denying and suppressing all knowledge of their own pre-colonial era indigenous homosexualities.

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‘Unsurprisingly, the Vatican and the Organisation of Islamic States are leading the fight against the UN declaration. The opposition of the Pope is truly sickening, depraved and shameless.

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‘Of course, the Vatican has form. In 2004, it teamed up with Islamist dictatorships in the UN Commission on Human Rights to thwart a resolution sponsored by Brazil that opposed homophobic violence and discrimination. The Holy See is so viciously homophobic that it opposed the UN condemnation of the murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.’

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Read Matthew 23 again.

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IV. PRESS RELEASES AND INTERNET COMMENTS

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http://www.repubblica.it/2008/11/sezioni/esteri/benedetto-xvi-27/vaticano-omosessualita/vaticano-omosessualita.html.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5268745.ece

http://www.corriere.it/cronache/08_dicembre_01/vaticano_omosessualita_aborto_d7ed9566-bfae-11dd-a787-00144f02aabc.shtml

http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-monde/homosexualite-discorde-entre-le-vatican-et-la-france/924/0/296200

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1863465,00.html

http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid67608.asp

http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=1023259