Catholic League: Vatican Rejects U.N. Declaration on Homosexuality

What the Vatican wants is to maintain the 'privileged place' of marriage as being between a man and a woman.

NEW YORK, N.Y. (Catholic League) - On December 10, the French will submit to the U.N. General Assembly a non-binding declaration that would decriminalize homosexuality.

The Vatican is opposed to the document, citing its concerns over language that could impose same-sex marriage in law.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue defends the Vatican decision:

"The Vatican's critics are already going ballistic over its opposition to the U.N. declaration. Italian newspapers have branded the Catholic Church's position 'total idiocy and madness,' accusing it of being 'obsessed with sin.' Amnesty International has weighed in against the Vatican and Time magazine has branded Pope Benedict XVI 'Scrooge' for resisting the French declaration. All of these boilerplate comments are off-base.

"Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N., has made it clear that the problem with the document is not that it seeks to protect homosexuals from being persecuted--the Church is obviously opposed to any such behavior--but that it opens the door to sanctioning gay marriage. His concerns are real: gay activists in support of the declaration have already said that this is the first step towards a binding U.N. resolution. And the problem with that is that it would ineluctably grease the slide towards gay marriage. As anyone who has seriously followed the gay rights movement knows, this is not a matter of conjecture--it is part of the gay agenda.

"Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, also spoke to this issue. 'Obviously, no one wants to defend the death penalty for homosexuals, as some would insinuate,' he said. He cited the principles embodied in the Catholic Catechism as excluding 'not only the death penalty, but all violent or discriminatory penal legislations in relation to homosexuals.' What Lombardi wants, justly so, is to maintain the 'privileged place' of marriage as being between a man and a woman.

"It's time to call the Vatican's critics' bluff: Let them first pass a binding resolution against gay marriage before considering the French proposal."

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The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics – lay and clergy alike – to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination. It is led by its' President, William A. Donohue, Ph.D.