A HIGH-RANKING VATICAN OFFICIAL WANTS GAY COUPLES GIVEN LEGAL PROTECTION

From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2013

As a high-ranking Vatican official on Monday (Feb. 4) voiced support for giving unmarried couples some kind of legal protection even as he reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage, British Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to see off a rebellion within his ruling Conservative party on Tuesday over his government’s plans to legalise gay marriage.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, was quoted to say the church should do more to protect gays and lesbians from discrimination in countries where homosexuality is illegal.

This was his first Vatican press conference since his appointment as the Catholic Church’s “minister” for family. He conceded that there are several kinds of “cohabitation forms that do not constitute a family,” and that their number is growing.

Against background that Paglia suggested that nations could find “private law solutions” to help individuals who live in non-matrimonial relations, “to prevent injustice and make their life easier.

Although Paglia was adamant in reaffirming society’s duty to preserve the unique value of marriage, he said the church must defend the truth, and the truth is that a marriage is only between a man and a woman.

Responding to journalists’ questions, Paglia also strongly condemned discrimination against gay people, who he said “have the same dignity as all of God’s children.”

“In the world there are 20 or 25 countries where homosexuality is a crime,” he said. “I would like the church to fight against all this.”

In Britain, even though parliament is likely to vote to give the draft law its initial approval, more than 100 of Cameron’s 303 Conservative lawmakers are expected to vote against it on what they say are moral grounds.

Behind in the polls, Cameron is trying to perform a tricky, and some analysts believe, impossible balancing act: to reconcile his desire to show his party is progressive with the views of many of those inside it uncomfortable with such reform, amid growing talk of a possible leadership challenge against him.

Many Conservative lawmakers say they feel Cameron is not a real conservative and is sacrificing what were once core party values on the altar of populism. Such talk is rife among some Conservative lawmakers and follows a spate of articles in the British press in which a handful of MPs raised the possibility of replacing Cameron with someone else, a prospect most commentators regard as far-fetched before the next election in 2015.

The new law proposes legalising same-sex marriage in England and Wales in 2014. It would also allow civil partners to convert their partnerships into marriages. Faced with strong opposition from the Anglican and Catholic churches, the new law would not force them to conduct gay marriages, but critics say gay people may launch legal challenges.

In France while the process of legalizing same-sex marriage despite fierce opposition from the Catholic Church, a similar fight is brewing in Britain with the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches sharply opposed to the move.

The Conference of the Bishops of France (CEF) issued a nine-page paper outlining the main debating points for and against the reform planned for next year and detailed several legal and anthropological objections to same-sex marriage, avoiding religious reasoning.

The paper stresses that the Church respects homosexuals and rejects discrimination, but argues that the demand for gay marriage reduces a complex social institution to a question of equal rights for individuals based on “amorous sentiment, which is by definition ephemeral”.

It claimed those calling for it do not take seriously enough issues of procreation, paternity and the duties of spouses to each other and parents to children.

France’s Catholic bishops are backing plans for a national demonstration against same-sex marriage legislation, which is expected to be approved by lawmakers later in January.

A coalition of 30 French family groups, “Manif Pour Tous” (Demo For All), plans a Jan. 13 Paris rally against a bill allowing same-sex marriage, introduced Nov. 7 by the Socialist government of President Francois Hollande under the slogan, “Marriage for All.”

Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.

-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002

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