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Vatican digs in after gay
marriage advances
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VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican is digging in after gay
marriage initiatives scored big wins this week in the U.S. and Europe, vowing to
never stop insisting that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.
In a front-page article in Saturday's Vatican newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See sought to frame itself as the lone voice of
courage in opposing initiatives to give same-sex couples legal recognition. In a
separate Vatican Radio editorial, the pope's spokesman asked sarcastically why
gay marriage proponents don't now push for legal recognition for polygamous
couples as well.
Catholic teaching holds that homosexuals should be respected
and treated with dignity but that homosexual acts are "intrinsically
disordered." The Vatican also opposes same-sex marriage, insisting on the
sanctity of marriage between a man and woman as the foundation for society.
The Vatican's anti-gay marriage media blitz came after three
U.S. states approved same-sex marriage by popular vote in the election that
returned Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency, Spain upheld its gay marriage law,
and France pushed ahead with legislation that could see gay marriage legalized
early next year.
"One might say the church, at least on this front, has been
defeated," L'Osservatore Romano wrote. "But that's not the case."
The article insisted that Catholics were putting up a
valiant fight to uphold church teaching in the face of "politically correct
ideologies invading every culture of the world" that are backed by institutions
like the United Nations, which last year passed a non-binding resolution
condemning anti-gay discrimination.
"The church is called to present itself as the lone critic
of modernity, the only check ... to the breakup of the anthropological
structures on which human society was founded," it said.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi, for his part,
said gays can have their rights protected by means other than through legal
marital recognition. He stressed that children should have a right to say they
have a father and a mother.
"If not, then why not contemplate freely chosen polygamy,
and naturally so as to not discriminate, polyandry?" he asked sarcastically.
Polyandry is when a woman has two or more husbands.
"As a result, don't expect the church to stop insisting that
society recognizes a specific place for marriage between a man and woman," he
said.
The U.S. election had been closely watched at the Vatican
because of the strong divisions that erupted during the campaign between the
Obama administration and U.S. bishops over gay marriage, which Obama endorsed in
May. The administration and bishops clashed more vehemently over Obama's health
care mandate requiring nearly all U.S. health insurance plans to cover
contraception, which the church opposes.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the
contraception mandate - which exempts houses of worship but applies to
faith-affiliated employers - is a violation of religious freedom.
The Vatican's reaction to Obama's re-election was tinged
with such lingering criticism, with Pope Benedict XVI congratulating Obama and
praying that the ideals of freedom and justice continue to be upheld.
Lombardi went further urging the administration to respect
essential values in "promoting a culture of life and religious freedom" -
Vatican buzzwords referring to abortion, contraception and the insurance
mandate.
It was a far cry from the Vatican's enthusiastic response to
Obama's election in 2008. Then, the pope termed Obama's election an "historic
occasion" in a personal note of congratulations sent right after he won, a break
with traditional Vatican protocol that usually sees official telegrams of
congratulations sent on inauguration day.
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Sunday, 11 November 2012
Vatican digs in after gay marriage advances
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