Gay rights protest at Vatican
Sit- in on Saturday over opposition to UN declaration
(ANSA) -
Rome,
December 4 - 2008
Gay rights activists on Thursday began preparations for a protest sit-in at the Vatican, under flak for opposing a proposed French-sponsored United Nations declaration to decriminalise homosexuality in the world.
Arcigay, Italy's biggest gay rights group, urged leftists, intellectuals, trade unions, show business personalities and journalists to join them at the protest on Saturday in a ''show of solidarity and commitment to defend human rights''.
Sit-ins and rallies will also be held this week and next in a number of Italian cities, Arcigay said.
The Vatican appeared unfazed by the polemics, staunchly defending its stance, announced on Monday by its representative to the UN, Monsignor Celestino Migliore.
In an interview with the French news agency I.media, Migliore said that the Church was against the declaration, which France will present to the UN General Assembly in mid December on behalf of the 27-member European Union.
The Church opposes the idea because it would whip up ''new and implacable'' forms of discrimination, he said.
''For instance, nations that do not recognise same-sex marriages would be pilloried and be subjected to pressure''.
Top Vatican officials say the brouhaha has been whipped up to ''denigrate the Church''.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters this week that the Church was not alone in its opposition to the proposal, with at least 150 UN members sharing its view.
''Fewer than 50 nations of the UN are backing it,'' said Lombardi, who stressed that the Church had nothing against homosexuals. The former head of the Vatican's Academy for Life, Msgr Elio Sgreccia, told ANSA on Wednesday that the Church would not waiver on ''its values, whether these are in harmony with society's trends or not''.
Sgreccia stressed that the Vatican's ''no was in fact a yes for the family''.
