On December tenth a resolution will be submitted to the United Nations stating that homosexuality should be decriminalized in member states. This resolution is intended primarily for the 85 states where homosexuality is still punishable by imprisonment, torture, or even death. It would be hard to to find a reason to oppose bigotry, torture and murder, but somehow the Catholic Church found a way, through a convoluted statement made by Monsignor Celestino Migliore, Vatican spokesperson for the United Nations. He says, "If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations ... For example, states which do not recognize same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure."
The Catholic Church's argument against this resolution is in essence that if you decriminalize homosexuality, gays will no longer be punished for being gay. This will lead to them being emboldened and even doing things as heinous as demanding equal rights under the law. On the other hand, if gays are imprisoned and murdered then the Catholic Church doesn't have to worry about them marrying. Apparently the latter is the preferable scenario for the Vatican.
It strikes me as odd of the Catholic Church to take this stance. It seems almost hypocritical of them. The Vatican doesn't seem to have a problem with what they consider to be sexual deviancy being practised by their rank and file. In fact, they go through great lengths and great expense to protect paedophile priests and keep them working around children, while at the same time trying to keep the families of the victims quiet. I say that the Catholic Church give up this fight against the decriminalization of homosexuality in sovereign states, and focus on the criminalization of paedophilia in the clergy.
Social Disorder by Stephen Henderson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.
Based on a work at www.socialdisorder.net.