CHURCH RESPECTS GAY RIGHTS
MANILA, JANUARY 15,
2012 (MALAYA) Archbishop emeritus Oscar
Cruz (photo) yesterday assured the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual
(LGBT) community of the Catholic Church's respect for them despite the strong
comments of Pope Benedict XVI against same-sex marriage last Monday.
Cruz, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines-National
Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal (CBCP-NAMT) said the Church will never
discriminate against members of the third sex despite not acknowledging them as
fit to be married.
"All individuals, men, women, and gay, are created by God through his image
and, therefore, all of us have the same human dignity and human rights," the
prelate said.
Pope Benedict had described same sex marriage as a means to "undermine the
family, threaten human dignity, and the future of humanity itself." Cruz,
however, said he supports the Pope in believing that same sex marriage is
unacceptable in the Church.
"Same sex marriage can be anything but marriage. Reason is, according to
natural law, the marriage of a man and a woman comes with children. That is
complete consummation of the marriage," he explained.
"When gays want to be together, it is understandable that they could have a
partnership, an understanding or a contractual life but not marriage. This is
not because the Church says so, but because human nature so says," he said.
Cruz said the LGBT community should just accept this as an "on the ground
reality" as not everything that man desires can be realized. – Gerard Naval
FROM THE GUARDIAN.CO.UK
Yes the pope is Catholic. But he didn't say gay marriage
threatens humanity BY ANDREW BROWN
Pope Benedict XVI said a lot about environmentalism and
economics in his speech, so why make up another story?
[PHOTO - Pope Benedict XVI 'didn't say a single word about
gay marriage' in his speech to the diplomatic corps at the Vatican on Monday.
Photograph: Alessandra
Benedetti/Corbis]
On Monday, Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech to the diplomatic corps at the
Vatican at which he didn't say a single word about gay marriage.
You can read the whole thing here. So why is it news? Because Reuters and,
following them, many other people reported that he had denounced gay marriage as
a threat to western civilisation.
Philip Pullella, who is one of the very best and most experienced Vatican
correspondents, led his story: "Pope Benedict said Monday that gay marriage
was one of several threats to the traditional family that undermined 'the future
of humanity itself'."
So far as I can see, Pope Benedict just didn't. He did speak in favour of the
family "based on the marriage of a man and woman".
He did say that "policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity
and the future of humanity itself". But there was no suggestion that gay
marriage was the most important of these and he didn't mention it at all,
whereas he did take up several other sexual issues.
He went out of his way to praise a recent European court ruling that outlawed
patents based on human stem cells. He said that "legislative measures which not
only permit but at times even promote abortion for reasons of convenience or for
questionable medical motives compromise the education of young people and, as a
result, the future of humanity". That may be right or wrong. But it's not an
attack on gay marriage, or even on homosexuality.
Nor was it the main or the most important part of his retrospective.
What he said was the most important event of last year was the global
economic and financial crisis. So far as I know, he is the most significant
European political figure to be saying things such as: "The crisis can and must
be an incentive to reflect on human existence and on the importance of its
ethical dimension, even before we consider the mechanisms governing economic
life: not only in an effort to stem private losses or to shore up national
economies, but to give ourselves new rules which ensure that all can lead a
dignified life and develop their abilities for the benefit of the community as a
whole."
Again, he doesn't have to be right in what he says. But he managed to say it
a lot better than Ed Miliband.
He also has sensible, if unoriginal, things to say about the Arab spring,
where he wants human rights to be protected against the tyrannies of the
majority: "Respect for the person must be at the centre of institutions and
laws; it must lead to the end of all violence and forestall the risk that due
concern for popular demands and the need for social solidarity turn into mere
means for maintaining or seizing power … the building of stable and reconciled
societies, opposed to every form of unjust discrimination, particularly
religious discrimination, represents a much vaster horizon than that of
short-term electoral gains."
For my money, the news line in his speech was his environmentalism.
How many newspaper readers would expect the pope to say: "Environmental
protection and the connection between fighting poverty and fighting climate
change are important areas for the promotion of integral human development."
Surely this is an opinion that would startle a great many American
Republicans who think he's on their side.
The pope is a Catholic; perhaps it's in the nature of the news business to be
freshly astonished by this fact every couple of months.
It's also true that the Vatican bureaucracy is arrogant, secretive,
suspicious of outsiders, and given to the use of almost impenetrable jargon.
Sometimes, as a journalist, you have to explain what they mean.
But none of this explains, still less excuses, the claim that he had said gay
marriage was a threat that undermined the future of humanity. He didn't.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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rights reserved
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