merry christmas from the vatican

Pope: Gay Relationships 'Dismal'

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

Posted: December 22, 2006 11:00 am ET

(Vatican City) Pope Benedict Friday fired a new broadside at same-sex couples warning that politicians who vote to recognize gay and lesbian unions were tampering with nature.

The pope used the Christmas speech to priests in Rome to urge them to rally the faithful in opposition to laws that would support gay and opposite-sex unmarried couples.

He said that those who support gay unions endorse "dismal theories" that strip all relevance from the masculinity and femininity of the human being as though it were a purely biological issue."

The speech came as Italy's left of center coalition government prepares a bill to establish civil partnerships and a day after the governor of New Jersey signed a civil unions bill.

"I cannot hide my concern about legislation on de facto couples," the Pope said.

"And so joining a man and a woman, and two people of the same sex becomes the same," Benedict said. "With that, the ominous theories that deny any relevance to the human person's masculinity and femininity are tacitly confirmed."

But in nearly a decade of denouncing same-sex relationships Benedict and his predecessor have met with little success in curbing LGBT civil rights legislation.

Same-sex marriage is legal in the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, South Africa, Canada and the US state of Massachusetts. The Socialist candidate, favored in the upcoming French election, has said that if elected she will introduce a marriage equality bill.

Civil partnerships are available in most European Union countries and in the American states of Vermont, Connecticut and as of February New Jersey. Other EU countries and a number of states and have domestic partner laws.

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine on Thursday signed a bill that will establish civil unions in the state. It goes into effect Feb. 19 but LGBT rights advocates in the state predict the law will be only a stepping stone to full marriage within two years.

In Italy the leftist government of Romano Prodi is working on a civil partnership bill similar to that already law in the United Kingdom. Earlier this month the Senate passed a motion calling on the government to bring in the legislation by the end of the month.

This week two members of a small party in Prodi's coalition stepped up the pressure on the government, placing two dolls of two same-sex couples in a nativity scene in Parliament.