Politics
Wednesday May 24, 2006
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New Italian Government in Clash With Vatican over Homosexual Civil Unions
by Hilary White
ROME, May 24, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In Italy, a political controversy is growing over the support given to so-called homosexual "civil unions" by the new minister for family in the recently elected centre-left government, Rosy Bindi.
With the institution of marriage failing in Italy and the Italian birth rate plummeting, Bindi told Italy's largest circulation paper on Sunday that co-habiting couples need "public recognition," a stand that is contrary to her often-declared Catholic faith. "It is not possible to relegate the safeguard of civil unions only to the sphere of private law," Bindi told Corriere della Sera. Bindi is known in Italy as a practicing Catholic who has used her affiliation with the Church to further her political goals.
According to the Catholic Church, as expressed by the former Cardinal Ratzinger when he was head of the Vatican's doctrinal office, homosexual "civil unions" are nothing more than a political capitulation to an anti-human ideology at odds with the natural meaning of marriage and human sexuality.
In recent statements, Pope Benedict XVI reiterated the impossibility of legal recognition of homosexual partnerings. Marriage, he said, only exists between a man and a woman "who are open to the transmission of life and thus cooperate with God in the generation of new human beings."
Speaking May 11 at a conference at the John Paul II Pontifical Institute, Pope Benedict said, "Only the foundation of complete and irrevocable love between man and woman is capable of forming the basis of a society that becomes the home of all men."
The pope warned against governments "confusing marriage with other types of unions based on a love that is weak."
The election of the centre-left coalition government of Romano Prodi, has alarmed some observers who see Italy following down the socialist and aggressively secularist path of Spain and the European Union.
Lorenzo Cesa, head of the Catholic UDC Party responded to Bindi's comments saying to ADNKronos International news, "There is nothing Catholic in the confused and contradictory programme of Bindi, which instead suggests an image of family going towards disgreagation."
Pope Benedict has made the runaway secularism of modern politics a central issue of his papacy. At the conference, describing marriage as a "pillar of humanity," Benedict called on Catholics to oppose attacks on the integrity of the family.
"It's well-known that legal solutions like so-called 'civil unions' are gaining ever-greater acceptance, even if, while they exclude the responsibilities of marriage, they claim the same rights," he said.
Prodi included in his election campaign promises to legalize civil unions, but will have difficulty with the coalition which is split on the issue.
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