Lawyers ask Vatican to denounce criminalization of homosexuality

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS APRIL 5, 2019 / 12:13 PM / UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO

Lawyers ask Vatican to denounce criminalization of homosexuality

Philip Pullella
3 MIN READ

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Human rights lawyers and gay rights advocates urged the Vatican on Friday to issue a clear and unequivocal statement against the criminalization of homosexuality.

The request was made at a Vatican meeting two days after the United Nations said Brunei was violating human rights by implementing Islamic laws that would allow death by stoning for adultery and homosexuality.

Brunei has defended its right to implement the laws.

About 50 lawyers and gay advocates, led by Baroness Helena Ann Kennedy, director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, met Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state and gave him a study on criminalization of homosexuality in the Caribbean.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brunei-lgbt-vatican/lawyers-ask-vatican-to-denounce-criminalization-of-homosexuality-idUSKCN1RH1XC

[Major Nikon]

1. Expecting the RCC to give up 2,000 yrs of intolerance is a bit much

But hey, Frank said nice things to a gay person in private once, so we should celebrate the baby steps. As the RCC is “evolving” on this issue, it should only be another thousand or three before they stop saying homosexuality is the devil’s work.

[uriel1972]

2. well they closed down the ghettos finally in the 19th century...

Oh wait, they didn't. It was the Italian unification forces that liberated Rome from the Vatican that did that.

[Lordquinton]

3. But he supports those laws

he has traveled around the globe promoting similar laws in several countries. Not to the death penalty point, but his actions embolden their actions.

[Igel]

4. The RCC draws their lines where they draw their lines.

We can claim they draw the lines elsewhere, argue that they should draw the lines elsewhere, but it remains a stubborn fact that at any given time they draw the lines based on where they draw the lines.

My prediction: Abusing and beating up, punishing such behavior is to be condemned; such behavior is to be condemned; the underlying predisposition may be wrong, but it is to be tolerated. All told, "Stop punishing these people."


On the other hand, here we have a group openly calling for having the RCC, a western cultural creation, interfering openly in the political system of a former colonial territory. Church/state? As long as it suits us, combine them. Imperialism? As long as it suits us, it's hunky-dory. WEIRD, no?

Then again, at the same time it's a tacit, "If you don't rebuke them and decry their practices, then it's obvious that you think just like them." More "with us or against us" framing that at one point we hated, until it suited us.

I don't give a rat's ass as to what the Vatican does.

[Lordquinton]

5. There's truth in that

But the RCC does politically interfere already, and it's to support such laws.

In the country in question there is no separation of church and state, which is at the core of the whole problem here. And there's nothing wrong to ask the pope to condemn such practices. That he doesn't already speaks more really. He already interferes in countries politics to support anti-LGBT laws, while claiming to be an ally.

What do you call someone who smiles and claims to be there to help you while stabbing you in the back?

[uriel1972]

6. OOOH! OOOH! I know!

starts with "H" hypo-something... hypocrite! that's it!

[Lordquinton]

8. That's a good one

well, not good good, but a good descriptor.

[uriel1972]

7. I do give a rat's ass and more what the Vatican does...

as it directly affects a great many people who I care about... some of whom I even care for.

[trotsky]

9. Exactly.

Where they draw those lines can make life better or worse for millions of people. There was another (former) DUer who expressed such a flippant attitude, suggesting that women denied birth control coverage by their employers (for religious reasons) could just go buy "rubbers" at the drugstore. There is such a woeful lack of thinking and empathy to offer a response like that.

[Mariana]

13. The group in the OP aren't asking for the RCC to interfere, anyway.

The poster appears to have misread the article. The group referred to therein are asking for a general denunciation of such laws anywhere. Expressing an opinion is not "interference".

[Mariana]

11. The article linked in the OP doesn't say

anything about a group requesting the RCC to interfere in any country's political system, openly or otherwise. Did you read that somewhere else?

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. So we can stop tickling the pope's balls for that "who am I to judge" thing, right?

Because it kind of loses its zing when you have to be fucking PROMPTED to denounce a "kill the gays" law.

[Mariana]

12. I don't believe the RCC has actually issued any such denunciation. nt.