VATICAN CITY, Dec 4, 00 (LSN.ca) – The Vatican has issued a strong condemnation of the proposed Charter of Fundamental Rights to be adopted at the European Union summit in Nice next week. The document seeks to establish rights for homosexuals normally reserved for heterosexual marriage by including the term “sexual orientation” in a section outlining grounds on which discrimination is prohibited. The Times reported that the Vatican’s intervention is most unwelcome by the agenda-driven liberals behind the Charter since it was hoped that all controversy could be avoided by first approving the document and then later making its enforcement mandatory in the near future.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith intervened Friday saying it was a “godless” document which would cause “moral and social harm” undermining the natural family. He said: “We find ourselves faced with the destruction of the image which man has always had of himself.” He added it was regrettable that “God and our responsibility before God” had not been “anchored in the European constitution”.
Andrew Duff, Liberal Democrat MEP for the Eastern region and the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Nice charter, said that he “greatly regretted” the Vatican’s intervention.
For more see The Times at: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,45114,00.html