Pope Benedict XVI has sited gay marriage, along with abortion as “dangerous threats to the common good”.
During a mass attended by more than 500,000 in Fatima, Portugal this week the Pontiff called for initiatives to address abortion and same-sex unions.
The New York Times reports that in a speech to Catholic social service groups Benedict suggested protections should be made for “the family based on the indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, help to respond to some of today’s most insidious and dangerous threats to the common good”
It is believed that Benedict was referring directly to Portugal’s same-sex marriage bill - which was approved by parliament earlier this year.
The bill, expected to become law within days, has already been criticized by the Pope as an “attack” on the natural differences between men and women.
Gay rights campaigners have condemned the latest comments made by Benedict during his four-day visit to Portugal, branding him an “arch-homophope”.
Activist Peter Tatchell told PinkNews.co.uk “It is utter madness for the Pope to equate same-sex marriage with terrorism, war, poverty and climate destruction.
"He is not only losing his sense of moral priority but also his capacity for rational though."
In an interview with The Telegraph Derek Munn, director of public affairs for LGBT lobbying group Stonewall, responded: “Some might say that it’s dangerous and insidious for the Pope to spend so much time publicly belittling gay, lesbian and bisexual people,”
In 2008 Benedict suggested that the existence of gay people is as threatening to humanity as the destruction of the rainforests is.
He has also criticized gay rights measures within Britain’s Equality Act – included to ensure the church does not discriminate when hiring gays and lesbians - as being against “natural law”.
In a news release George Broadhead, secretary of gay humanist charity Pink Triangle Trust said: "These repeated attacks on gay rights, and in particular the right to marriage, amount to a paranoid obsession about what the Pope clearly perceives as an intrinsic moral evil.
"Given that the stance of all three main UK political parties is supportive of gay rights, are their leaders going to have the guts to condemn this overt hostility and will the new coalition government think twice about welcoming this ghastly bigot to the UK next [sic] September?"
Related links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/europe/14pope.html
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/05/14/campaigners-anger-at-popes-latest-homophobic-comments/
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