Vatican lashes same-sex marriage, again
by Maria Sanminiatelli (Associated Press), 6-6-2006
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican declared Tuesday that the traditional family has never been so threatened as in today's world, lashing out against contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage.
The 57-page document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose leader, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances.
Gay activists in Italy quickly condemned the paper as an "attack against modern life, freedom and social redemption."
Many of the practices attacked by the document have been widespread in Western nations for decades; same-sex marriage has become an issue recently.
Several countries have legalized same-sex marriage and others permit civil unions. However, many U.S. states have outlawed same-sex marriage, and President Bush and some Republican senators are campaigning to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban it.
The Vatican's document did not break any new ground, but summarized traditional Roman Catholic Church positions in the first sweeping comment on the issues during Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
"Man of modern times has radicalized the tendency to take the place of God and substitute him," it said. "Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today's culture."
The document did not mention the current debate within the Vatican on whether the church should permit condoms to battle AIDS in a particular circumstance -- when one partner in a marriage has the virus.
It reaffirmed the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" that stated the Vatican's opposition to contraception. However, it noted, couples "have been limiting themselves to one, or maximum two children."
The document also condemned in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and the use of embryos.
"If a man takes on the power to fabricate man, he also takes on the power to destroy him," it said. "The human being has the right to be generated, not produced, to come to life not in virtue of an artificial process but of a human act in the full sense of the term: the union between a man and a woman."
Lopez Trujillo sparked controversy three years ago when he said condoms don't prevent AIDS and may help spread it because they create a false sense of security. The Vatican insists sexual abstinence is the only sure way to fight AIDS.
Several other cardinals have argued that the use of a condom within a marriage would be the lesser evil if it prevented passing on HIV infection to the partner.
The new document makes a broad attack on what it calls threats to the "the natural institution of marriage."
"Couples made up of homosexuals claim similar rights to those reserved to husband and wife; they even claim the right to adoption. Women who live a lesbian union claim similar rights, demanding laws which give them access to . . . fertilization or embryo implantation. Moreover, it is claimed that the help of the law to form these unusual couples goes hand in hand with the help to divorce and repudiate," the document said.
Of abortion, the document said: "Such practices in fact constitute a violation of the fundamental right to life which is the right of every human being from the moment of conception."
Franco Grillini, an Italian lawmaker and honorary president of the activist group Arcigay, condemned the Vatican document as "grotesque."
He said the European countries that give legal recognition to unmarried and same-sex couples have done so with great benefit to society.
"To maintain, therefore . . . that this would represent an attack against the traditional family is a falsehood that has been scientifically contradicted by the facts," Grillini said.
In recent years, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada legalized same-sex marriage, while Britain and several other European nations now give such couples the right to form partnerships that entitle them to most of the same tax and pension rights of married couples.
A 2004 court ruling legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and Vermont and Connecticut permit civil unions. But more than a dozen states have reacted by adopting constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and 19 now outlaw the practice.
by Maria Sanminiatelli (Associated Press), 6-6-2006
VATICAN CITY -- The Vatican declared Tuesday that the traditional family has never been so threatened as in today's world, lashing out against contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage.
The 57-page document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose leader, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances.
Gay activists in Italy quickly condemned the paper as an "attack against modern life, freedom and social redemption."
Many of the practices attacked by the document have been widespread in Western nations for decades; same-sex marriage has become an issue recently.
Several countries have legalized same-sex marriage and others permit civil unions. However, many U.S. states have outlawed same-sex marriage, and President Bush and some Republican senators are campaigning to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban it.
The Vatican's document did not break any new ground, but summarized traditional Roman Catholic Church positions in the first sweeping comment on the issues during Pope Benedict XVI's papacy.
"Man of modern times has radicalized the tendency to take the place of God and substitute him," it said. "Never before in history has human procreation, and therefore the family, which is its natural place, been so threatened as in today's culture."
The document did not mention the current debate within the Vatican on whether the church should permit condoms to battle AIDS in a particular circumstance -- when one partner in a marriage has the virus.
It reaffirmed the 1968 encyclical "Humanae Vitae" that stated the Vatican's opposition to contraception. However, it noted, couples "have been limiting themselves to one, or maximum two children."
The document also condemned in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and the use of embryos.
"If a man takes on the power to fabricate man, he also takes on the power to destroy him," it said. "The human being has the right to be generated, not produced, to come to life not in virtue of an artificial process but of a human act in the full sense of the term: the union between a man and a woman."
Lopez Trujillo sparked controversy three years ago when he said condoms don't prevent AIDS and may help spread it because they create a false sense of security. The Vatican insists sexual abstinence is the only sure way to fight AIDS.
Several other cardinals have argued that the use of a condom within a marriage would be the lesser evil if it prevented passing on HIV infection to the partner.
The new document makes a broad attack on what it calls threats to the "the natural institution of marriage."
"Couples made up of homosexuals claim similar rights to those reserved to husband and wife; they even claim the right to adoption. Women who live a lesbian union claim similar rights, demanding laws which give them access to . . . fertilization or embryo implantation. Moreover, it is claimed that the help of the law to form these unusual couples goes hand in hand with the help to divorce and repudiate," the document said.
Of abortion, the document said: "Such practices in fact constitute a violation of the fundamental right to life which is the right of every human being from the moment of conception."
Franco Grillini, an Italian lawmaker and honorary president of the activist group Arcigay, condemned the Vatican document as "grotesque."
He said the European countries that give legal recognition to unmarried and same-sex couples have done so with great benefit to society.
"To maintain, therefore . . . that this would represent an attack against the traditional family is a falsehood that has been scientifically contradicted by the facts," Grillini said.
In recent years, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Canada legalized same-sex marriage, while Britain and several other European nations now give such couples the right to form partnerships that entitle them to most of the same tax and pension rights of married couples.
A 2004 court ruling legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, and Vermont and Connecticut permit civil unions. But more than a dozen states have reacted by adopting constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and 19 now outlaw the practice.
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