Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Pope celebrates Human Rights Day while opposing gay rights
12.12.2008 8:35am EST
(Vatican City) At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI paid tribute to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; but elsewhere, LGBT civil rights groups were denouncing the pope’s opposition to expanding the 60-year-old United Nations document to include gays.
“The dignity of every man is really guaranteed only when all his fundamental rights are recognized, protected and promoted,” the pope said at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the declaration.But in New York, the Vatican’s permanent observer at the UN, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, was lobbying UN member states on behalf of the pope to reject a proposal that would add language to the document condemning “discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
The proposed amendment to the declaration was presented at the General Assembly on Wednesday by France. The document has been signed by the member states of the European Union. It was drafted by France which currently holds the rotating EU Presidency.
More than 80 nations have laws denying or limiting LGBT civil rights. Some Muslim countries impose the death penalty on homosexuality while others have lengthy prison sentences.
The Vatican, however, maintains the declaration would force countries to legalize same-sex marriage.
Faith leaders from national LGBT groups issued joint statement Wednesday denouncing the Vatican’s double standard.
“As faith leaders we were shocked by Vatican opposition to this proposed initiative. By refusing to sign a basic statement opposing inhumane treatment of LGBT people, the Vatican is sending a message that violence and human rights abuses against LGBT people are acceptable,” said the statement signed by faith program directors from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Human Rights Campaign, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and National Black Justice Coalition.
The statement also criticized the Bush administration for not taking a position on the declaration.
“Compounding the Vatican’s opposition is the inaction to date of the government of the United States. As faith leaders and citizens of the United States, we call on the U.S. government to join the 50 countries throughout the world that have officially supported this U.N. proposal,” the statement said.
The General Assembly has yet to vote on the declaration.
The Vatican has long been an opponent of LGBT rights – especially marriage. It fought hard against same-sex marriage rights in Holland, Belgium, Spain, Canada and South Africa, all of which went on to legalize gay unions.
In the U.S., the Catholic Church was heavily involved in the fight against gay marriage in Massachusetts and Connecticut which now allow gay marriage and was instrumental in the passage of Proposition 8, which overturned the California supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage in that state.
In October, the Church said it was considering psychological testing for prospective priests to screen out candidates “with strong homosexual tendencies” and heterosexuals “unable to control their sexual urges.”
I saw this kind of hypocrisy in the Catholic church when I was a child.
That was really the only time I ever had disagreements with my loving parents. They did insist on my going to church and then twice a week to religious instruction. I really hated it! I do
believe in god but this was really total bullshit to me even as a kid. Then as I grew older I heard about the Church’s involvement in the holocaust and knew with self-satisfaction that I was right about them all along. They live just to brainwash the weak and needy!
I never regreted my decision to leave the Roman Catholic Church and be part of another faith community.
I have attended Epsicopal and UCC churches, which were always very welcoming and supportive.
What does Pope know about human rights?
Nothing.
HIS ASSHOLYNESS AT IT AGAIN
I was raised Catholic and used to joke about being a “recovering Catholic”. After this and, Prop H8, I am considering myself fully recovered. I will never give them another penny. I still have a thing for the Virgin Mary in art. Especailly Mexican.
This Pope is no better than the one during WWII, but with less style.
Tom in Long Beach
Your title says a lot. The Pope does see a wide difference between human rights and civil rights.
Don’t ask me to explain it here. It would take a volume and still would not make sense.
I cannot help but wonder how many millions and possibly billions of dollars Gay parishioners have put into the collection plates at Church over the years. How many Gay people have stood with their Church community to help the poor and hungry? How many Gay people have been there to sweat and toil alongside others in the building of beautiful temples for the Church? And yet, they are not good enough to receive protections under Human Rights declarations? I was not raised Roman Catholic, however I was raised in a denomination that is just as hateful and bigoted if not more so. Fortunately, I was able to open my eyes at a young age and realize the hypocracy that dominated the church. And that to me was not what God and his son Jesus Christ was all about!
The pope and Bush. This is no surprise. As Perez Hilton would say the Pope “has a little of the gay face!” Maybe a self loathing closeted coward. Shame on the Catholic church for not speaking out against him.
there is a verse in the Bible that warns us to beware of religions with fancy garb because they are not a true religion hmmmmm do catholics come into play here
“The dignity of every man” quoth the pope. Whoops, there! Did he forget there are also WOMEN in this world? Just because he denies them church recognition cannot abolish them!!! Guess he wants to pretend both gays and women have no rights. Shades of the 16th century!!
When is are religions going to understand that it doesn’t take away from their rights it legal not religious now if a church wishes to marry same sex couple fine if they keep up these discriminatory attitudes they should be forced to or loss their tax exempt status it only fair
Jesus was a man (if he existed) of love not excluding….did not Jesus go to the lower of lower people. Were is the Pope or any religious right person…I don’t see them living among the lower of lower people. No they are living in their BILLION dollar homes.
As a catholic for the first 45 yrs of my life, with two close relatives in the priesthood, I can tell you that it is not hate that drives this ridiculousness, it is fear. The church has a 4th-grade understanding of sexuality and wants it that way.
If they decided to soberly look at sexuality, they would have to start with themselves, and (by the church’s own estimate) the 30%-40% of the priests and bishops that are gay can’t face leaving the world’s largest and most fabulously decorated closet.
They speak of “unnatural” and “disordered” (in the religious sense, not the psychological sense) sexual relations, while never addressing the fact that forced celibacy is the most unnatural state for a man to live in. That’s why about half of them don’t.
The priesthood is populated with many scared, stunted children who would rather pretend they have no sexuality rather than deal with sexuality in a mature fashion.
There are many beautiful things about the church which it is sadly willing to sacrifice to protect its own. But remember, even the current pope reminds us that the highest moral authority in the world is an individual’s own conscience. I asked my brother (a priest) about this. He told me that time after time people come to him — in the confessional or otherwise — and ask if they committed a sin by doing X or Y. He said that he has never and will never tell anyone they had because a sin is a transgression against your conscience, and only you and God know what is in your conscience.
May God judge these frail men more kindly than they judge us.
And? Who cares what that cadaverous old fool thinks. How could he make himself any more irrelevant?
Unfortunately, His Lacy Mess presides over the most powerful and effective PROPAGANDA MACHINE on the face of the planet.
Disagree with him?
You’re going to burn in hell for all eternity, ’cause ONLY Roman Catholics can be saved, and he’s gonna EXCOMMUNICATE you
If you’re a Catholic.
Non-Roman Catholic “ecclesial bodies” are not “authentic churches” and are therefore beyond salvation’s reach … only the Eastern Orthodox share the Roman distinction of being “authentic churches” in Rome’s eyes … they’re more bigoted than the pope, so OF COURSE he wants to make nice with them!
Maledict the XVI seems to be raiding Pius XII’s vestment closet. Some of the outfits he’s come up with lately would be over the top at a DRAG SHOW (chuckle).
When you see him revive the beehive triple tiara, DUCK. The s**t’s gonna hit the Missal BIG TIME. Popes tend to wear that when they’re being “infallible.”
Cheers,
Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA USA